ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — The Memphis Grizzlies were in Oakland for Game 2 of the 2015 NBA Playoffs, Round 2, against the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors led 1-0 in the series.
Golden State head coach Steve Kerr listed Ognjen Kuzmic and Brandon Rush as inactive. Memphis point guard Mike Conley started for the Grizzlies, after missing Game 1 and the last two games of the previous series.
1ST QUARTER: Grizzlies Draw Two Early Fouls On Draymond
The Grizzlies got off to a good start, with Zach Randolph getting a lefty hook fed by Marc Gasol in the lane, while Draymond Green picked up two early fouls.
The first was on a slip to the basket on the right side running pick-and-roll with Stephen Curry. Green appeared to have lost the ball while attempting a layup against Gasol as Gasol crashed to the floor, but as the ball was free, referee Scott Foster called a charge on Draymond. This was the Warriors’ first offensive possession of the game.
The second personal occurred about three minutes later, as Randolph drove into the lane towards both Green and Andrew Bogut. The call appeared on the replay to be a phantom foul and Green swung his arm in disgust. From the other side of the court, Foster gave Green a technical foul.
That brought David Lee into the game as the Grizzlies took an early 8-5 lead with 8:51 to play in the opening period.
After Randolph missed an ill-advised deep two-pointer from the right corner, the Lees (David for the Warriors and Courtney for the Grizzlies) traded missed transition buckets, Harrison Barnes grabbed the defensive rebound, marched upcourt, found Bogut at the top, who swung the ball to Curry on his left, who drained a 27-foot trey to pull the Dubs to within 14-11 with 6:15 to go.
Kerr took a timeout, but Memphis went on a 6-1 run on interior buckets as Randolph took Bogut to the rim for a banker after a turn-and-face post-up, David Lee missed one of two free throws on the other end, Randolph made another bucket inside after up-faking Festus Ezeli, then after Curry’s crossover-pull on Beno Udrih rimmed out, Kosta Koufos got a righty hook in the lane over David Lee to drop.
It was 20-12, Grizzlies, with 3:47 remaining, but after Joerger took a timeout, the Warriors went on a mini-run to close things out.
From the top, Curry delivered a whip pass to Barnes underneath for a two-hand slam, Steph drove in against Jeff Green and the ball had enough English to trickle in on the reverse, with Ezeli barely letting the ball go, and Andre Iguodala drilled a trey from the left elbow, assisted by Curry.
Golden State trimmed the deficit to 26-20 with 1:21 to go and, after Leandro Barbosa confidently drove the left baseline past the defending Udrih and stopped and popped a jumper, Oracle was on its feet with 50 seconds remaining, but Udrih answered the call with a nifty up-and-under reverse layup with the left hand and Ezeli defending the rim.
The Grizzlies took a 28-22 lead into the second frame.
Randolph led all scorers with 10 points, 4 rebounds, while Conley added 9 points on 4-for-4 field, 1-for-1 from distance. Meanwhile, Curry led the Warriors with 7 points, 4 assists.
2ND QUARTER:
With the bench unit called for duty for the start of the second period, Barbosa put his imprint on the game. After Shuan Livingston stripped the ball on help on a lane attack by Jeff Green, Livingston found Barbosa for the touchdown, and-one, as Vince Carter gave a bump at the last moment on Barbosa’s fastbreak layup.
Marreese Speights thought he drew a charge on Gasol, who appeared to initiate a lot of contact attacking Speights from the left block using the left shoulder going in, but the refs let the play remain physical with a no-call, and Gasol eventually scored a banker with Speights slammed to the floor.
But Barbosa kept the Warriors’ momentum going as he calmly buried a triple from the top after Iguodala posted up Courtney Lee on the low left block.
That brought the Warriors to within 30-28 with 10:18 remaining, but Gasol got an entry pass on a cut and immediately put in a hook shot over Speights.
Neither team would do much scoring over the next four-plus minutes, as Klay Thompson threw a pass at Speights’ feet in the interior, leading to a turnover, Draymond drove strong after his defender bit on a three-point up-fake, only to get blocked by Koufos with no call by virtue of verticality. Green got his own rebound and fed Speights under the hoop, but by then he had been camping and the referees called an offensive three-seconds on Speights.
Klay added an airball on a catch from Livingston, Curry missed an open catch-and-shoot on a swing pass from Draymond, but Conley also missed in the lane and Jeff Green’s open three-pointer from the left elbow clanked off iron.
Kerr called a timeout with 5:35 to play with the score stuck at 36-30, Grizzlies.
On the ATO (“after timeout” play), Bogut got an alley oop delivered by Thompson. On the ensuing sequence, Conley fell hard to the ground with the ball on a drive where he slipped, but he managed to call timeout, although he winced in pain as the fall sent a jolt of paint to his fracture and metal plate in his face. He would be okay and played on after the break.
Jeff Green got a layup out of the timeout, then Klay finally broke out of his quiet games with a three-pointer on a dribble-and-pop at the top of the arc, with the screen set by Bogut, but Thompson missed a wide-open dunk after that, and the Grizzlies capitalized as Courtney Lee swished a trey from the left side on the ensuing sequence.
On the missed dunk, Klay initially took a surprising one-footed three-pointer as Bogut set a screen up top for him again. Bogut managed to corral the miss, found Thompson going backdoor on Udrih with the wide open lane, but Klay’s one-handed tomahawk toilet-bowled out.
Still, the Warriors managed to get a couple stops on the other end. Curry stripped Udrih, but short-rimmed a pull-up trey. Then Draymond took the ball away from Randolph as Bogut did a nice job of moving his feet against the more nimble Randolph, and Curry made a gorgeous hanging reverse layup with the right-hand, going left-to-right, in transition.
Memphis head coach Dave Joerger called timeout as Oracle chanted, “Warriors!” with 1:25 to play and the gap closed all the way to 41-39.
But the Grizzlies would close on a 9-0 run as Golden State put up some ugly shots. Gasol made a catch-and-fade on the left baseline over Bogut, then Thompson missed a wide-open three from the right corner on a nice kick-out by Barnes. Tony Allen scored on the other end as he hustled past Klay toward another mishandle by Randolph in the paint.
Curry went past Udrih on the right baseline, but his pass back out was tipped away, Randolph retrieved the ball at halfcourt, and fed Allen for an and-one against Iguodala.
With the free throw, the Grizzlies suddenly had a 48-39 lead with just 34.6 seconds to play before halftime.
Thompson then drove down the lane with the left hand but his lefty barely drew glass as Randolph converged. Bogut once again got another o-reb, but Curry shanked the drive on a put-shot that missed badly, and Udrih ended the half with a nice crossover and a jumper over Bogut.
Just like that, Memphis sported a 50-39 lead at halftime.
Conley led all scorers with 11 points, while Randolph added 10. Jeff Green chipped in 6 off the bench. Although Bogut had 7 rebounds, Curry had just 9 points and the same 4 assists to lead the Warriors, while Draymond played just under 14 minutes out of a possible 24.
The Dubs collectively shot just 14-for-38 (36.8%). The Grizz countered with 21 made buckets compared to the Warriors’ paltry 14.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @jenniembs)
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