ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — You know it’s my personal favorite theme (see my bio at the bottom), but you’ve seen it a million times before. I’m talking about rec league again. The upstart young team versus the old slogging veteran stars who have already reached that plateau. Well, it’s either that, or picture Kung Fu Panda trying to eat those Chinese buns and wily Master Shi-Fu narrowly preventing him from doing so.
What do the vets do? Slow it down. Make the opponent play your style. Play a little dirty inside. Do whatever it takes to grab loose balls. Limit turnovers to a paltry minimum. Wait for the youngsters to make mistakes. Out-think the apprentices and have the counter-measures ready to execute. Wear them down and let the long NBA 48 minutes take its course.
This, my friends, is the same old smash-mouth traditional basketball lesson the Memphis Grizzlies handed the Golden State Warriors last night, again.
For starters, the Warriors had just four fastbreak points.
“We wanted to push the pace. I thought that’s when the game changed, when we started to walk it up the floor,” coach Mark Jackson said, “It’s no secret we’re at our best when we’re pushing the basketball.”
The Grizzlies held the Warriors to just 37 second-half points, including overtime. At the same time, the Grizz committed just six turnovers the entire game.
“Offensive execution has been better, which is a bizarre way to segue to your defense, but it is for us,” said Memphis head coach Dave Joerger, “For us to be clean offensively and get the shots where we know we’re going to get them, it helps us offensive rebound a little bit better and it helps us get back on defense.”
While the absences of both Stephen Curry and Tony Allen can’t be forgotten, it was as if the Grizzlies knew what was coming and had booby traps ready to go. And, boy, those booby traps didn’t malfunction. They worked almost to perfection.
“I was pleased with our guys that were smaller with taking on the challenge to play bigger guys,” Joerger said.
Tayshuan Prince, in particular, stepped up big at critical moments with under a minute to go in overtime, making two jumpers to keep the Warriors two possessions away. But all game long, as the obvious last offensive option on the Grizzlies, it was important for him to be ready for the swing pass.
“I told him, ‘Get underneath the basket so you get to shoot a layup,'” said Joerger, “(The Warriors) caught us with it the first time at the end of the clock and after that our spacing was a lot better and we’re very fortunate to have Marc Gasol‘s high IQ, talent, and skill.”
“We have a lot of guys that have been around the league,” said Memphis guard Jerryd Bayless, “With these guys, I think the situations can’t phase them.”
It’s been a formula for the Grizzlies’ recent success. They hadn’t been playing well before they set out on this four-game road-trip, which they now have swept.
“We were very poised in the situation. We couldn’t put our finger on what the situation was,” said the Grizzlies point guard Mike Conley, “but we figured it out…It was good to get out of Memphis and to just concentrate on the team and concentrate on getting better.”
Meanwhile, without the superstar X factor in Curry available, the Warriors were left falling into the lulls created by the Grizzlies’ experience, patience, and mistake-free basketball. And the marathon that the NBA game is, would take its toll, slowly.
Conley was matched up on Iguodala, who was Golden State’s starting point guard and finished with 14 assists albeit just 3-for-14 from the field, but the Warriors could not capitalize that mismatch.
“Playing from a different position, I’m getting looks that I didn’t know were there but were there,” said Iguodala, “I’ve just got to go into it and take the shots, not second-guess.”
All five Golden State starters logged at least 43 minutes, with the bench once again not contributing much, as Draymond Green, Marreese Speights, Ognjen Kuzmic, and Kent Bazemore combined for just 3-for-10 shooting and 1-for-4 from beyond the arc.
“That’s no type of excuse because their starters played a lot of minutes, too,” said David Lee.
“Their guys played a lot of minutes as well,” said Iguodala, “We don’t want to use that as an excuse.”
And yet, the only Grizzlies starter to log over 40 minutes was Zach Randolph. Kosta Koufos (21 minutes) had a big dunk and Mike Miller (28 minutes) had a big three that he swished.
But there’s no question the Warriors will learn from this. The only issue is, can they learn and improve enough before the end of the season?
And as sure as the Grizzlies have the Warriors’ number, the Grizzlies can’t seem to get themselves out from under the rock when it comes to the San Antonio Spurs, whom the Warriors keep playing better against. It’s a dog-eat-dog world in the NBA, but the Warrior pups need beat-downs like this sooner rather than later, to mature into the beasts — well, pandas — that is their destiny.
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