The night still seems surreal. From the walk up the extraordinarily rowdy Beale Street on the way to the forum, the screaming, desperate fans, to the immense, indescribable joy that flowed throughout the arena after the game- Memphis needed this win. The team and the city alike.
The pregame atmosphere (speaking of which, can we stop this Jerry Lawler trend? I mean he is awesome, but once was plenty) quickly dissipated when Mike Conley was called for two very early fouls, the second of which was questionable at best. But then Greivis Vasquez came in to provide the spark to get the team going. The defensive intensity was unrivaled: at one point the Grizz were up 16-4. The Spurs were powerless to get the ball inside, and they weren’t able to hit from outside. However, eventually, as we all knew they would, the Spurs got it together to make a game out of it. By the end of the first, the Grizz led by only 8, 24-16, with 20 of those points coming in the paint (and two of the other points from the line).
The second quarter felt an awful lot like the Grizz we used to know. It just felt like the Grizz were bleeding their lead to the spurs, and we all of a sudden abandoned our inside game in favor of outside jumpers which were not at all falling. The quarter ended on a 12-5 Spurs run that cut the lead down to 3, 46-43.
After a really weird, probably abusive halftime show involving a monkey riding a border collie, the Grizz came out ready to make history. During the 3rd quarter, the fans seemed to lose their excitement. The crowd went from festivity to nervousness. The tension was unbelievable. Tony Parker took over. He couldn’t seem to miss. Ever. It was absurd. He is a great player, but I hate playing against him. However, back to back alley-oops to Darrell Arthur with two amazing assists from OJ and Greivis seemed to give us our spark back, only to be taken right back with a half-court buzzer beater by freakin Manu.
Manu in the offseason
Regardless, the Grizz held a 4 point lead heading into the final 12 minutes. The Grizz jumped out to a 7 point lead, but then Manu and Tony took over as the Spurs finally took the lead at 80-79 with 4:40 left. The crowd tried desperately to hold onto hope, but it seemed like the Spurs were not going to be denied a game 7. But the Grizz came out of a timeout to once again pound the ball inside, getting ZBo a basket from the block. After a stop, Conley came back to hit a jumper, ZBo yelled at him to get him the ball. That’s when I knew ZBo could take this game over. He was an animal. Zach scored 17 points in the final quarter 13 in the final 4:24. Mcdyess was playing great defense, but ZBo did whatever it took to get the ball in the basket, including a couple fades that seemed to hit the ceiling. He must have read Rick Reilly’s playoff predictions that said never to bet on ZBo’s team. His domination put the game out of reach, and the Grizz made history. This city is uniting like nothing I have ever seen because of this team. This team has the fight to make a series with OKC, and hopefully will pull out a win Sunday afternoon.
Grizzin,
MEdwards
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