Griz enjoying ‘new’ Conley
The start of spring brought warm weather and sunny news to Memphis Grizzlies basketball. Nagging injuries haven’t rained on point guard Mike Conley’s season. Instead of breaking down at this point of the regular season, Conley’s increasingly appeared stronger by the minute as the Grizzlies prepare for a seventh straight postseason berth. Conley dropped 36 points in his last outing when the Grizzlies ended a fourgame Who: Memphis vs. Dallas Mavericks When, where: 7 p.m. today, FedExForum TV, radio: Fox Sports Southeast; WMFS 92.9 FM/680 AM losing streak. He’ll enter their game Friday against the Dallas Mavericks averaging 23.4 points in March, and that’s the highest-scoring month Conley’s enjoyed in 10 NBA seasons.
Conley’s productivity and energetic play is refreshing for the Grizzlies and their first-year head coach David Fizdale. Late-season bumps and bruises adversely affected Conley over the past few seasons.
Not this year, the first of a five-year, $153 maximum salary contract Conley signed last summer. A broken back only kept Conley out for nine games in December.
Conley’s recent surge indicates that his bouts with sore ankles, feet, an Achilles and broken face are buried in the past. He’s risen to being the Grizzlies’ Alpha on the court with the highest scoring average of his career at 20.4 points per game. Conley’s .403 shooting percentage from three-point range is a career-best when you consider he attempts six long-range shots per game.
“I feel like I’m back to where I was at the beginning of the year. I’m back to being reckless again,” Conley said. “I’m not worried about my back and all of the things that go along with that. That’s one part of it. And having guys go in and out of the lineup kind of forced me to be more aggressive. That plays a part of it, too.”
Fizdale continues to push Conley toward being a go-to guy with force given his ability to put pressure on defenses off the dribble in space.
“Since post All-Star, he’s been killing it. I know our record doesn’t necessarily display him killing it,” Fizdale said. “I know he doesn’t care about the individual numbers, but you can see it. He’s turning it up a notch. You know me, I love it. When I look at this score sheet and see this kind of box score from Mike Conley, I get excited to see that.
“Unfortunately, I walk right into my office, look up at the TV and I see that Russell Westbrook has like 60 (points), 20 (rebounds) and 10 (assists) or something like that. I look at that and I’m like, ‘I’m pushing Mike to be aggressive and this guy is like out of this world, right.’ I like it. That’s the Mike Conley I’m pushing for. I really want him to continue to embrace that role and he is.”
Conley said his restored durability is no coincidence.
“I’m doing a lot more maintenance than I’ve ever had,” Conley said. “I’m preparing to play a lot of minutes. I’m preparing to carry a heavy load. As long as I continue to have that mindset off the court, I’m capable of playing at this level and being durable doing it.”