Grizzlies vs. Thunder: Memphis holds on for series-clinching Game 5 victory

So much of the blame has targeted the Thunder’s leader. Durant shot 10-for-27 in his second-to-last game and finished the season with a 5-for-21 shooting performance in the elimination contest. Durant told DailyThunder.com he was exhausted by the end of the series with Memphis, but he’s not about to change how he goes about things.

The Thunder enter the offseason with questions despite what should be a renewed hope of a championship run next season behind Durant and a healthy Westbrook. Among other things, Martin comes off the books and the team will be looking to either re-sign him or fill in his sixth-man role.

That’s the rational version.

In the hot sportz take land we live in, there will be media jackals trying to take Durant down a peg for his poor shooting performances down the stretch. They’ll be wrong. Oddly, these will probably be the same people who claimed Westbrook was killing the Thunder. No retreat, no surrender, just find a different sacred cow to slaughter and gorge on the remains.

There aren’t many statistics where one side was significantly stronger than the other in this series. Neither team shot well at any point in the series. Some games, the Thunder dominated the rebounding battle. Other games, the Grizzlies did. The one thing that stands out is turnovers: Memphis had 46 in the series, Oklahoma City had 70.

Dude was at his bullying best, plain and simple, but he added in some finesse Wednesday night. After a mediocre eight-point Game 4, Randolph exploded for 28 points and 14 boards, both playoff highs in a postseason where he has become America’s gravitationally challenged folk hero.

Matt Pineda has more on Miami’s comeback at Hot Hot Hoops:

Both teams shot under 40 percent from the field and under 25 percent from deep, but that grinding style of play allowed Memphis to dictate the tempo and style of the game.

It was fitting after a game where Durant clanged incessantly. Although he ended up with 21 points, he was 5 for 21 from the field. The Grizzlies’ defense harassed as violently as usual, and he got to the line 15 times. But the wear-and-tear still managed to lead to a generally inefficient evening for the three-time scoring champion.

Randolph was burly, banging and generally unstoppable. He had his best game of a postseason where his average has been spectacular, finishing with 28 points and 14 boards. The whole array was working: the drive right, followed by a spin left for a too-easy bucket, the high-arcing 20-footers, even some nifty moves off the dribble. He drew tons of fouls, getting to the line 16 times, but wouldn’t miss until late.

Durant was somewhat absent, missing his first six attempts, a combination of the typical grit/grind Memphis defense and a surprisingly cold evening from the guy with three scoring titles. He got his points due to frequent trips to the line, although his three misses from the line were uncharacteristic for a guy who typically shoots around 90 percent from there.

The Grizzlies would come out hot in the second quarter, with their bench scoring eight quick points on an 11-2 run to put the Thunder down, 29-24. A pair of Durant free throws and a subsequent jumper would cut the lead to 36-35 with a little over six minutes left, but then the Thunder wouldn’t hit a field goal for the rest of the period allowing the Grizzlies to start to pull away with a 14-3 run.

Playing at home in Game 5, the Thunder should come out with a passionate brand of basketball, but the Grizzlies aren’t exactly the kind of team to kowtow to intensity. With a wild one expected for Wednesday night, here are three questions that could define the game.

Without Westbrook, someone needed to step up and provide scoring punch behind Durant’s heroic efforts. As the team’s third-leading scorer during the regular season, shooting guard Kevin Martin appeared to be the most obvious potential Robin to KD’s Batman. Instead, Martin has struggled throughout the series against Memphis, rarely looking like someone who was among the most efficient scorers in the league during the regular season. Since starting strong with a 25-point, seven-rebound effort in Game 1, Martin has averaged 12.3 points on 35 percent shooting in the past three games.

Conley blows by both defenders and finishes at the rim without any defensive resistance. Ibaka’s poor defensive positioning opened a clear driving lane for Conley.

Marc Gasol moved up to set a screen but Conley does not need it after Sefolosha is caught out of position. This forces Ibaka to help on Conley. Sefolosha and Ibaka contain Conley, but Gasol is left alone to drift to the elbow, where he will drain an uncontested jumper.

With the victory, the Grizzlies now have a commanding lead as the series shifts back to Oklahoma City for Game 5 Wednesday night. Memphis’ players insist they’re not looking ahead towards a potential trip to the Western Conference Finals.

“I know our guys are focused,” starting point guard Mike Conley said following a 24-point effort Monday night. “We’re taking it one game at a time.”

Tom Ziller has already written about why it’d be foolish to blame Kevin Durant for the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 3-1 deficit in the second round of the NBA Playoffs. Without Russell Westbrook, Durant has effectively shouldered a massive load with a supporting cast that hasn’t come through. That the Thunder are even in this series -- all four games have gone down to the wire -- is a testament to Durant.

Now, it is true that Durant shot 2-14 down the stretch Monday as the Grizzlies came away with an overtime win. Most people are smart enough to cut Durant some slack for that poor shooting, but some people will likely look at the box score and conclude that Durant came up short when his team needed him most.

The script dictates that someone will question Durant’s greatness. Would Jordan allow his team to lose in the second round? (Yes. 1988.) Would LeBron? (Yes. 2006, 2008, 2010.) It’s a tired old battle in which a select group of fools denies transcendent stars their respect until they actually win a championship, as if the trophy rewarding the best team says all that can be said about individual greatness. Once OKC is eliminated, if not sooner, those predictable fools will venture out from their holes to admonish KD for not being good enough, all while ignoring the bigger lessons.

But it’s impossible to look at the path of this series and ignore Westbrook.

This series will now shift back to Oklahoma City for Game 5 on Wednesday night, with the Thunder one game away from elimination.

• FAQ: Explaining the Kings situation

Kevin Zimmerman asked three questions about the game. Here are some early answers:

To their credit, the Thunder have taken the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year out of his element in the first half of Game 4. Gasol, who averaged over 21 points per game in the first three match-ups of this series, has nine points, but on just 3-of-8 shooting in the first half.

Playmaking is a broad term, but the Thunder are backpedaling because they haven’t had enough of it.

It’s not only that the Thunder don’t have enough shooters to space the floor. While the Oklahoma City forward can put up LeBron James-like numbers and Brooks can alter his lineups within games to create mismatches, there’s still no other player besides Durant on the roster to put the ball on the deck and create. Jackson and Martin might be capable, but arguably the second-best playmaker for the Thunder is Ibaka, an energy rebounder and shot-blocker.

Ibaka’s confidence is so shaken from the perimeter that he’s passing up wide-open jumpers:

While Ibaka’s jumper has been awful, he’s still shooting 67 percent at the rim and has shown he can be effective for the Thunder is in the low post. The Grizzlies are aggressively helping on Durant with their frontcourt, which opens the restricted area for Ibaka. When he cuts to the rim, like he does here, the Thunder benefit from having Ibaka on the floor:

The Memphis Commercial Appeal first reported the story after noticing Hecker was not on the bench on Saturday for an 87-81 win against Oklahoma City. The team did not say why Hecker was removed from his duties.

The Chris Vernon Show said Hecker had hired a lawyer following the strangely timed leave.

One-dimensional or not, as Highkin notes, James was able to take those Cleveland teams on impressive playoff runs, including a NBA Finals appearance and an Eastern Conference Finals appearance. Could Durant lead the Thunder to a similar feat? It’s certainly possible despite the team trailing 2-1.

The close nature of these games actually fits into one of Durant’s greatest strengths as a player -- his ability to hit big shots late.

Ibaka was really off on his jumper, going 0-of-7 on shots outside the paint. Making matters worse is the fact that Ibaka also missed some bunnies around the rim. That includes two dunks and a couple of layups, which should be gimmies for the high-flying Ibaka.

“He has to continue to fight through it,” Brooks said. “We’re going to stay with him. We’re going to work through some of the offense where he gets these same good looks and he’s going to have to step up and make him. We know he can and hopefully next game he does.”

“The decision to play Kevin a lot of minutes is easy. He’s a good player,” Brooks said. “He had plenty of rest. Lot of timeouts. So it wasn’t a factor. His energy was good. We didn’t make shots.”

However, there may be something to the fatigue factor, especially considering Durant’s defensive assignment in the fourth quarter.

Oklahoma City shot just 36.4 percent percent for the game. Things were especially bad in the third quarter, when they shot 20 percent and turned the ball over six times against the stingy Grizzlies defense. The Thunder were able to somewhat overcome their poor shooting with 14 offensive rebounds, but it would not be enough.

Both teams got off to a slow start offensively, with the Thunder bricking a lot of shots and the Grizzlies committing some silly turnovers. Oklahoma City shot just 31.8 percent in the opening quarter, while Memphis turned it over five times, allowing the Thunder to get some easy buckets in transition.

After taking a four-point lead into the second quarter, the Grizzlies opened up a 10-point lead at the start of the frame. But Durant helped Oklahoma City roar back, and the Thunder wound up taking the lead right at the end of the half.

Ethan Rothstein looked at three key questions heading into Game 3.

Zebelun Benbrook of Welcome to Loud City considered the Thunder moving for a small-ball lineup that worked well for them in Game 2, and he concluded that it is a risky strategy that could also be high-reward:

Over at Indy Cornrows, Nathan S. reminisced on where it all went wrong for Indiana after the Pacers took a two-point lead over the Knicks in the third quarter:

What do you need to know about Game 3? Here are three questions these teams will have to answer.

In the Thunder’s Game 1 victory, Martin made a huge impact offensively, scoring 25 points off the bench and giving the Grizzlies fits. He hit three three-pointers, was 6-7 from the free-throw line, and the slender shooting guard even hauled in seven rebounds. He was a different player in Game 2, with the Grizzlies getting more physical. He scored six points on 2-11 shooting, never got in a rhythm and was a total non-factor.

”Our whole focus was Kevin Durant, he said following the game. “We know what he’s capable of.”

Without Westbrook, the offense has to flow through Durant and he has the responsibility to carry the team in his absence. On Tuesday, he fell just short at home but wasn’t worried about his ability to do so moving forward and have it translate to wins.

But Brooks wasn’t going to bother talking up his star. Everyone knows Durant at this point.

“What really makes us good are our role players,” Brooks said. “We have stars in those departments.”