I confess, last night, I may have given up. I was unable to watch the game (Vanderbilt desperately needs to get Fox Sports South), and resorted to following the game on my phone. Obviously, gamecasts do not tell the entire story, but it looked ugly. Thirteen points in a quarter? Terrible. But the next two quarters were not a whole lot better. When I stopped watching, we were down 22 in the fourth quarter. Surely, that was insurmountable, and I had a meeting to go to. I gave up.
After the meeting, however, I checked the score, just so I could see the stats and who was responsible for such a poor performance. I literally yelled at two Memphians who were with me when I saw the score. I assumed it was wrong, and checked out another source just to make sure. Phenomenal comeback. I believe this was the largest 4th quarter comeback since the ’09-’10 season.
But this win was so much more than just a win. The game was a microcosm of the season as a whole. We started off pretty slow. The beginning of the season was not encouraging. Michael Wilbon called us the most disappointing team of the season. More disappointing than the 0-3 defending champions. That’s insulting. But we kept playing, fighting, and earned some W’s. And then tragedy struck. ZBo, our top scorer and rebounder, was injured, and was determined to be out for 6-8 weeks. Grizz fans knew that the outlook was pretty bleak. Without Darrell Arthur as backup either, we were in trouble, and the assurance of Dante Cunningham wasn’t quite cutting it for me. Rudy seemed unable to bear the load of being the star of a team. Critics were down on the team, hoping we could just hang on till Zach returned.
But the Grizz clawed back, as they seem to be getting so adept at. Rudy stepped up, magnificently. In the last seven games- all wins- Rudy has been the leading scorer in five. He has attacked the basket hard, hit that silky jumper, and grabbed boards. But what I loved to see was his determination to get the ball in the clutch minutes of the game. In the waning seconds of the fourth last night, up 86-85 with about 30 seconds left, Rudy took the ball on an iso, and nailed a tough shot at the elbow. And that’s so important for a team. We need someone to rely on down the road (look at the Heat). And it looks like we are starting to find that in Rudy. I give full credit to Geoff Calkins for the twitter-fueled rage he had been directing at Rudy; haters gon’ hate.
Second, and probably less important at this point in the season, we won, while in first place. I was worried that the moment we gained the lead of the division, we would fall apart, unable to handle the expectations. After all, we played as underdogs all last year, and this year, when people believed we would contend, we lost to open the year till all expectations evaporated. If we expect to make a run in the postseason, we will need to learn how to deal with pressure.
Tonight is a huge game. Portland is really good, so this would be a quality win. Let’s go get it.
Also, if you want some good articles to read about the Grizz’s run, check out
http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/14966/the-shootaround-nba-news-notes-and-the-unbreakable-memphis-grizzlies
http://www.sheridanhoops.com/2012/01/24/memphis-grizzlies-nbas-best-kept-secret/
MEdwards
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