John Hollinger, the former ESPN analyst turned Grizzlies Vice President of Basketball Operations, described his team's modus operandi perfectly as Memphis went up 2-1 on the Warriors on Saturday night. He suggested the Grizzlies' achievement was the equivalent of drawing some nice graffiti on the Mona Lisa. That really is what Memphis has done.
The Grizzlies drag the Warriors into the muck
Few gave Memphis a chance of beating Golden State. How did we get here and how will the Warriors respond?
All season, we marveled at what Golden State had become. Not since the peak Nash-Amare-Marion Suns had the best team in the league also been its prettiest. With an electric backcourt starring Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, the snarliest utility knife in the drawer in Draymond Green and an exhilarating set of role players performing a beautifully open style of play, the Warriors turned heads all year as they racked up a historic number of wins. Golden State represented something of a basketball ideal ...
... until Memphis got to them.
A column on the NBA. 5/7: End Hack-A-Shaq to save basketball 5/5: LeBron thrives despite supporting casts 5/3: CP3's legend is finally born 4/30: Aldridge's options better than Portland? 4/29: Why Clips shouldn't break up their team 4/28: Latest twist in Love's strange career 4/23: Duncan shows that skills outlive springs 4/22: LeBron's Finals runs come with an asterisk This turn of events -- with the Grizzlies completely mucking up the Warriors’ offense and giving them more than they bargained for on the other end -- is a surprise. Because of how the teams finished the season and, particularly, how the teams played in their final meaningful regular season match-up on March 27, no one could have predicted this with any reasonable confidence.
Before that March game, Memphis was the only West team with a winning record (1-0) against Golden State. The Warriors had answered every test but the Grizzlies. It was one of the most highly-anticipated games of the regular season.
Golden State ended up trouncing Memphis. It was over before the third quarter ended.
The Grizzlies had been lagging a bit by that time, fighting through nagging injuries and trying to incorporate Jeff Green into the mix. The Warriors game sealed it. Golden State was an overwhelming favorite in the West and the Grizzlies were a member of the pack chasing the leader.
Memphis didn't even seem like much of a contender -- that status was reserved for the Clippers and Spurs. One of the big laments of the Spurs and Clippers meeting in the first round was that if Portland hadn't clinched the No. 4 seed via the divisional title rule, the two biggest challengers to Golden State would have met later in the playoffs. But if it hadn't been Spurs-Clippers, it'd have been Spurs-Grizzlies. Few acknowledge that would also have been unfair to both.
It would have been. We've seen Memphis disrupt just about every team it's faced in the playoffs over the last five years. The Grizzlies bullied the Clippers, knocked the Thunder around, blitzed the Blazers and shook up the Spurs. Now, the Grizzlies are hitting the Warriors hard.
The Warriors are built on truths and clichés alike: long-range shooting and tough defense are a difficult gauntlet to break, pace-and-space keeps defenses unsettled, sharing is caring. Steve Kerr and his All-Star staff have used those directives to create a truly gorgeous and effective system. And the Grizzlies have just batted it away.
How? Because the Grizzlies are weird, man. With double post threats and a battery of wing defenders, Memphis has completely disrupted the Warriors' pace. Mike Conley -- mask and all -- has been in Curry's face, and Tony Allen's FIRST TEAM ALL-DEFENSE quality work on Klay Thompson has been well-covered.
On the other end, three of Golden State’s great defensive strengths have been neutralized. The Grizzlies don’t have natural wing scorers, so Defensive Player of the Year runner-up Draymond Green has no one to cover. Thompson’s defensive talents are mostly wasted on Allen, who has been hitting some shots, but isn’t going to take too many.
And while Andrew Bogut is one of the top defenders among centers, the pick-and-pop game of the Grizzlies' big men is drawing him out. When Zach Randolph is in the post, using Bogut on him means putting a much, much smaller man (like Green) on the very large Marc Gasol. It's a bad beat for the Warriors. This is why we so looked forward to that March 27 game: it looked like Memphis had something to make Golden State work.
We’d forgotten that until we got back to Memphis on Saturday and saw the Warriors wilt in The Grindhouse. The series is still a series, and that’s an achievement for the Grizzlies. It’s not an achievement Memphis will be satisfied with -- they want to win this and the next round and the Finals, too, and they can -- but it’s something.
This is the first time all season it has really looked like the Warriors could be beaten. It’s the first time all season Curry has looked mortal, Klay has looked frustrated, Kerr has looked overmatched and Draymond has been quiet. This is what Memphis does to the elite of the NBA, year after year. The Grizzlies pull them down into the dirt and see if they can crawl away. If they do, they leave with some bruises. If they don’t, the Grizzlies will earn the right to beat up on another pretty team.
Maybe this is the year no one escapes the Grizzlies' wrath. Or, maybe this brawl is just what the Warriors need to sharpen up before the final two rounds. We won't know until we know. Given the inevitability we appeared to have only a week ago as Chris Paul limped out of the first round, Conley couldn't open his left eye, the Hawks struggled and Kevin Love went under the knife, this effort by the Grizzlies is in itself a gift.
SB Nation presents: As the playoffs intensify, so do the fights
