When Gary Neal, 26-year-old undrafted rookie out of Towson, put the ball on the floor with 1.7 to shoot, I had the Grizzlies advancing to the second round. I didn’t think there was any way he was getting this shot off, let alone making it. So much for that. Neal bought the Spurs five extra minutes against the Memphis Grizzlies with the following ice-cold three-pointer…
The camera panned the Memphis bench after the shot, and every single player had “devastation” written all over their face. I was not at all surprised when the Spurs took the OT 13-6, and unltimately took the game 110-103. To be honest, I wouldn’t be that surprised if the Spurs go on to win the series now. Yes, I recall telling you all the Spurs were finished after game four… but I take that back. This type of shot/victory is something I never imagined, and is about the only thing that I feel could’ve turned this series around. It happened, and we’ll see if the series does in fact get turned around. That was an absolutely gut-wrenching way to lose if you’re the Grizzlies. I mean, in their minds, I’m sure most of them were already in the second round when Neal launched that shot. Talk about sucking the air out of a squad… I figure it’ll be tough for Memphis to get back to that level of energy they played with in the first five games, and you know this shot will energize the Spurs. The Grizz better take it in game six, because I figure the veteran Spurs are much better suited for a game seven on their home floor.
As for how the game got to this point… well, Memphis dug themselves a bit of a hole in the first half by firing too many jumpers. They still trailed by double figures in the early stages of the third, but Marc Gasol, Darrell Arthur, and Zach Randolph got going in the paint (that’s what’s been working for Memphis all series long), and the Grizz were within one. Sam Young, who dropped an impressive 14 points in the second half, dropped in a three-ball with 2:29 left in the third that finally got his team over the hump. Memphis pretty much held that lead (it was tied once) until Gary Neal hit his shot. San Antonio actually appeared to have tied the game with 2.2 seconds left… Manu Ginobili collected a loose ball and banged in a corner three, but after a replay it was correctly changed to a two. Gino’s shot was an even tougher look than Neal’s–dude was falling out of bounds and had Marc Gasol right in his face–but he canned it, and that set Zach Randolph up with a pair of freethrows to try and make it a three-point game again. Had Shane Battier opted to inbound the ball to OJ Mayo rather than Randolph, the Spurs would be fishing right now. George Hill lost track of Mayo, who had darted into the empty backcourt. There’s no way anyone would’ve been able to get to him to commit a foul in 2.2 seconds. Battier didn’t even look in Mayo’s direction, though, and Randolph went to the line. Z-Bo made both, and it took a crazy shot for the Spurs to win it… but damn, they could’ve had it in the bag.
I guess I’ll give you a few numbers here… once again, Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol were excellent, combining for 37 points, 28 boards, and seven assists on 15-31. Had Memphis held on to win this game, I’d be rambling on and on about how awesome those two have been throughout this series. They’ve waaay out-played Duncan and McDyess in four of five games now, and I feel like they still deserve a mention for their performances in this game, even though San Antonio pulled off a miracle. Zach Randolph has been one of the top performers in the playoffs thus far, and Marc Gasol has played better than his brother, the one that I have heard called the ”best big man in the league.” San Antonio was led by Manu Ginobili and his 33 points. Tony Parker appears to have gotten his act together… he dropped 24, his second impactful showing in a row after sucking for this first three games.
I think the key to the two remaining games is how Memphis is able to bounce back from a heartbreaking defeat. Can they still bring the hustle that had them within 1.7 seconds of advancing, or will they come out looking like Denver in game two after that offensive goaltend?
Speaking of Denver, they’re toast. Serge Ibaka scored one point in OKC’s victory, yet without him, the Thunder are headed back to Colorado to play a sixth game right now. Air Congo swatted nine shots, three of which came in the final couple of minutes, as OKC moved on to the second round for the first time since leaving Seattle with a 100-97 victory. The Nuggets had a nine-point lead with three and a half minutes to go, but Kevin Durant decided to single-handedly take it away with 13 of his 41 points. Unfortunately, his heroics didn’t come without a little controversy…
I couldn’t tell whether or not that was backcourt in live motion. I still can’t tell after watching it at least 10 times. That’s as close as it gets. It appears to me that Durant catches the ball with one of his feet on the line, which is legel. He then lifts that foot and takes a step, then sets it back down on the line. Does the removal of his foot from the line mean he had established frontcourt position? He no longer had the ball or his body in the backcourt, but I’m not sure how the rule works, to be honest with you. Maybe you have to have both feet in the frontcourt to establish position. He never set both of his feet down in the frontcourt, so if that’s how it works, then it’s a good call. All of that being said, if I’m the officials, I give that ball to the Nuggets. Why? Because they got shafted in game one. It seems to me like that would’ve been a good solution on a call that was probably impossible to get correct in live motion.
After all of that mess, the Nuggets still had two chances to tie it up in the final 10 seconds. JR Smith was stuffed by Durant on a three, and then Arron Afflolo missed a pretty good look at the buzzer. The Nuggets played really hard in this game, and they even made 81 percent of their freethrows, but Kevin Durant was simply too damn good. So……
There’s a reason why I selected the girl’s body for Nene’s face. This f@cking softy passes up so many goddamn opportunities to dunk the damn ball. I swear, he had two chances to throw down in the fourth quarter last night, but he opted to toss the ball out to the three-point line instead. YOU’RE SEVEN FEET TALL, FINISH THE PLAY! And don’t go up with one of your signature weak-sauce finger rolls, either. That infuriates me.
The Nuggets aren’t the only team leaving for a fishing trip this morning…
The Miami Heat have eliminated the Sixers in five games, and they’ve got to feel confident heading into the second round; I mean, sh!t, D-Wade was finally able to score in the final 30 seconds of a close game…
Clutch. All jokes aside, once again, the Heat were anything but clutch last night. That dunk was their only bucket in the final five minutes, and they damn near blew an eight-point fourth quarter lead. I feel like this series with the Celtics is going to be extremely interesting. Both teams seem to have trouble closing out games; Miami simply hasn’t been able to find a guy who can hit a clutch shot, and Boston is always building leads and letting the opposition back in the game. Paul Pierce still has ice water flowing through his veins, though, so Miami better try to avoid dramatic finishes.
