Court Vision: Warriors salvage road split to even Western semis
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- All that excited air sailed right out of Memphis' balloon Monday as the Grizzlies floundered clumsily around FedExForum making that PPPRRRTTT sound in a 101-84 loss to Golden State. The Warriors evened the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal at two games each, ahead of Wednesday's Game 5.
1. ALL THAT RUCKUS AND IT'S NOW A BEST-OF-THREE
Advantage Warriors. Back to square one heading to Oakland for Wednesday's Game 5, the series is now a best-of-three, two of them possibly at Oracle Arena.
"We came into this series believing it would be a seven-game series," Grizzlies coach Dave Joerger said.
In Memphis was a carbon copy of the first two games in Oakland, a dominating first game for the host, followed by follow-up collapse. At FedExForum, the Grizzlies were a rocky rough defensive draft of their Game 3 selves from the beginning.
The Warriors had made 12 combined 3-pointers in back-to-back losses, but connected on 14 of them, four guys with at least three apiece. Memphis made four.
Steph Curry nearly Shaqted-A-Fool on a near dunk fail in the first half, but made up for it with a small-man slam. Oh, and he scored 33 points on 11-of-22 shooting and made 4-of-9 3-pointers.
As Memphis heads back, back to Cali, Cali, it's the Warriors stylin, profilin, growlin and smilin.
"We believe that we can get the job done and we'll be better on Wednesday," Joerger said.
Momentum has been quite the fickle rover this series. Whoever leaves Oracle Arena with a win could head back to Memphis with it for a final push. Headed back West, the Warriors' record may have skipped, but they kept on dancing.
2. SPEAKING OF ROVERS, WARRIORS EMPLOYED THE TONY ALLEN EQUALIZER
Tony Allen wreaked defensive havoc in Games 2 and 3. Asked pregame Monday if he had a plan to take Allen out of Game 4, Warriors coach Steve Kerr replied: "Yes."
Andrew Bogut was that plan, his job to guard Allen. Carrie Ann Inaba would give him two thumbs up after watching the big Australian shimmy, shake, work and rover the paint.
Between Kerr's lines, Bogut's job was to not guard Tony Allen unless he stepped near the paint, really, really near it. It worked early and Allen jerked the cork right under the water, taking four ill-fated jumpers in the first six minutes of the game. Three of them came from deep and three bricked off, the last two as the crowd's benefit-of-the-doubt was wearing off.
Allen, though, who finished 2 of 9 with a steal, was not impressed with the strategy.
"It didn't affect nothing," Allen said. "It's just I wasn't able to give my team the energy tonight. I like that matchup, so hopefully they'll do it again and I'll take advantage of it."
That will require either hitting that shot, driving in or figuring the ball into the clogged post. It became such an offensive catastrophe, Allen played only 17 minutes, his role diminished from First-Team All Defense to Last One You Want Shooting the Ball.
On Memphis' first possession, Zach Randolph was immediately double-teamed and it didn't stop.
On the other hand, Memphis got it wanted, 56 shots in the paint. But only 22 found the bottom of the net and no battle has ever been won shooting blanks.
"But it may not work next time," Kerr said.
Safe bet they'll have to be proved wrong.
3. WEIRD NIGHT GOT BACK TO NORMAL
Memphis' Grindhouse has its quirks. When Jerry Lawler isn't beating up fake fans, Justin Timberlake may be running a television camera.
For Games 3 and 4 here, Mike Conley's protective mask turned the offbeat meter up a notch. Scarier than the guy in a bloody Jason mask wielding a sword was the Grizzlies fan (in a Grizzlies shirt) high-fiving Curry during the game. By 11 p.m. central, he was a wanted man in the city.
For his sake, his eBay sells should probably be mailed from across either Mississippi or Arkansas' line, as he may have replaced Draymond Green as Memphis' Most Wanted.
But there was norm, too, as stretch-4s got off for 6-of-13 shooting from beyond the arc. Green made 3 of 8 and scored 16 points, a key 11 as Golden State staked an eight-point lead in the first quarter. Andre Iguodala hit 3 of 5 from deep and scored 11 points.
Memphis, for all its defensive grit, doesn't have that. Joerger knows it, saying after the game his team is going to at some point, have to score 100 points to win. Memphis scored 97 and 99 in its two wins.
"It's going to take us to score one more point than them," said Marc Gasol, who scored a team-high 19 points and had 10 rebounds. "If we score 100 and they score 120, great, we scored 100 points."
To do that, Randolph is going to have to take more than the 10 shot he just took. There should be a great floor seat available to see if that happens here in Game 6, especially if Lawler finds the guy Curry fived.
51-0 -- Golden State is unbeaten when they lead a game by 15 or more. The team that has built a first-quarter lead has won each game of the series.
22.2 -- The Grizzlies made 4-of-18 3-point attempts.
