In what seems like an annual playoff ritual already, the Memphis Grizzlies will meet the San Antonio Spurs for the fourth time over the past seven postseasons. Fans will never forget the time when the Grizzlies pulled off the stunning upset over the Spurs as the eighth seed back in 2011. However, they’ve gotten swept by the same Spurs in their last couple of playoff series as well.
This time around, new head coach David Fizdale – a part of Miami’s coaching staff that faced San Antonio in the Finals back in 2013 and 2014 – made a bold decision to have standout forward Zach Randolph come off the bench. So far it has worked, but also because point guard Mike Conley and center Marc Gasol are playing some of their best basketball in years. Gasol, in particular, added a sweet three-point stroke to his arsenal this season to make his upcoming matchup against his brother Pau all the more intriguing to keep an eye on.
Speaking of three’s, the grit-and-grind Grizz never lost their knack for outstanding defense this season, ranking tops in the NBA at limiting opponents to just 39.1-percent shooting from beyond the arc. Unfortunately, shutdown perimeter defender Tony Allen (calf strain) won’t be available for this entire series, which is a huge defensive blow for the team.
To add insult to literal injury, Memphis lost its last six road games (2-4 ATS) to close out the season, meaning that the team isn’t entering the playoffs in the best of shapes. By the way, two of those losses were at San Antonio.
Did we really expect anything less from the San Antonio Spurs this season?
The Spurs secured their seventh 60-win season in franchise history to extend their playoff-appearance streak to an unparalleled 20th-straight year – the longest active streak in all of North-American major sports! They’re also the only NBA team other than the top-seeded Warriors to finish in the top 10 in both offensive and defensive efficiency this season.
Even without legendary Tim Duncan in the roster and with aging Tony Parker posting his worst numbers since he was a rookie, head coach Greg Popovich had no problems developing his relatively new core of superstars into instant contenders. Reigning and two-time Defensive Player of the Year Kawhi Leonard is in the running for that same award again as well as the MVP, while LaMarcus Aldridge and Pau Gasol have also made for a terrifying frontcourt combo.
What many of us fans may not have realized is that San Antonio is extremely deep in talent beyond their obvious stars; so much so that the team has the best supporting cast in the league with a plus-8.9 aggregate net bench rating (ABNR). However, that figure dipped all the way down to minus-4.5 when the team played Memphis.
To make matters worse, the Spurs only took two of the four regular-season contests against the Grizzlies this regular season. Luckily those two wins were on their own home court as mentioned earlier, but they’ve also failed to cover the spread in all four of those divisional meetings versus the Grizz.
Writer’s Prediction
The Spurs take Game 1, 101-96, but the Grizzlies (+9) put up a good fight to cover the spread again.
