Zach Randolph was pushed around. It's hard to believe, but it happend in the Memphis Grizzlies' 105-83 Game 1 loss to the San Antonio Spurs to open the Western Conference Finals.
Zach Randolph held in check in Game 1
The San Antonio Spurs effectively shut down Memphis Grizzlies forward Zach Randolph with fronts and double-teams in a Game 1 victory.
The Grizzlies All-Star and leading postseason scorer at 19.7 points per game missed his first seven shots and only saved himself from a scoreless performance by tipping in a missed bucket early in the fourth quarter of the blowout. Randolph finished with two points on 1-for-8 shooting.
"They front us. They pressured the ball. They pushed us out of the box," teammate Marc Gasol said of the Spurs after the game. "They did a lot of things."
San Antonio certainly jostled the Memphis big men in the paint. Randolph didn’t get many touches, and Gasol only got his outside of the paint and in face-up situations. The Spurs picked their poison and let Gasol take contested jump shots, but neither he nor Randolph got easy looks at the rim. Gasol went 7-for-16 for 15 points on Sunday.
"Obviously (Randolph's lack of offense) hurt us because we only scored 83," Memphis coach Lionel Hollins said. "We do need him to play a little bit better."
Hollins wasn't so quick to place much more blame on Randolph, however. He pointed out that point guard Mike Conley went 5-for-12 and Gasol could've played better.
“It’s going to be important for a number of people to step up and make shots if they’re going to pack it in,” Hollins said.
Memphis’ Quincy Pondexter was about the only bright spot, going 6-for-11 from the field and scoring 17 off the bench. But with the Spurs’ own bench pumping out great production from Matt Bonner, Gary Neal and Manu Ginobili, it wasn’t nearly enough.
The Grizzlies’ inside-out game was missing the inside, and it went poorly.
Memphis shot 43.2 percent from the floor, and the offense never clicked. Meanwhile, the Spurs' big men controlled the glass close to a draw, especially on the offensive boards. The Grizzlies didn't get an offensive rebound until reserve forward Ed Davis tipped in a miss with 5:22 left in the second quarter.
But all the indications of the San Antonio’s defense and the lack of offensive production by Memphis came back to Randolph.
"We tried to make it hard on him," Spurs point guard Tony Parker said. "Obviously he is their best scorer. He's a beast inside.
“He had an off night,” Parker warned, “but I’ve been knowing Zach for a long time -- we were in the same draft.”
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