T-wolves series might be the best thing for Grizzlies
Just listen to Steph Curry right after the Golden State Warriors beat the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday night.
Just listen to the star player on the team that awaits the Memphis Grizzlies if they get past the Minnesota Timberwolves, the one with three NBA championships and 20 playoff series wins to his credit.
Just listen because then the angst here in Memphis generated by this taut first-round series, and the significance of these next 72 hours or so, make a lot more sense.
“We forgot what it felt like to try to close out a game,” Curry said immediately after the clinching Game 5 win over Denver. “The nerves, the energy in the building, honestly the pressure … it's been a long time since we felt this. We still know how to do it, but you had to kind of grind it out. It's a good feeling.”
This version of the Grizzlies doesn't know how to do it. Not yet.
Ja Morant, Desmond Bane, Jaren Jackson Jr. and everyone else on this roster not named Kyle Anderson or Steven Adams, they've never closed out a playoff series before.
Their first chance arrives Friday (8 p.m., ESPN) in Minneapolis when Memphis and the Timberwolves play Game 6. The Grizzlies lead 3-2 in this increasingly dramatic series. Another game awaits Sunday (2:30 p.m., ABC) at Fedexforum, depending on the outcome. Either it's the first Game 7 of the Morant era, or it'll be the first game of a Western Conference semifinals series against Curry's Warriors.
Regardless of what's to come, whether Memphis finishes off Minnesota or not, there is an undeniable truth that should help deal with the nerves and doubt brought on by how vulnerable the Grizzlies have looked to start this postseason run.
Perhaps fending off Minnesota quickly and soundly would have always been a preferable path in the near term. But for the sake of this franchise, for the sake of the future, what's happening to the Grizzlies, the grueling and gutwrenching nature of this matchup, might be the best thing that could have happened to them.
This is the sort of test they eventually had to pass. Going through it now has been thrilling, terrifying and sometimes even painful. But it probably gives Memphis a better chance of knocking off Golden State in the next round, if it comes to that.
And if the Grizzlies were to not advance — here's guessing (hoping?) it doesn't come to that — Minnesota is the type of opponent that would generate meaningful introspection.
This front office would have a hard time ignoring the flaws that emerged in
this series because Minnesota is just as inexperienced in the postseason as these Grizzlies. Had Memphis been playing someone else more seasoned, say Denver or Utah, there might be more of an inclination to blame the team's lack of playoff reps.
But think about the value Memphis already extricated from facing Minnesota.
We've learned that Desmond Bane and Brandon Clarke are ready for the stress and spotlight of the playoffs, and ready to carry even more of the burden for this franchise moving forward. We've learned Jackson might not be.
We've seen the value of steady veterans such as Tyus Jones and Anderson, a particularly noteworthy development since both will be free agents. We've seen the Grizzlies' superior depth doesn't translate as well to the postseason, with the rotation whittled down to seven players in crunch time as major regular season contributors like De'anthony Melton and Adams were rendered mostly ineffective.
We've figured out coach Taylor Jenkins is willing to make drastic adjustments on the fly, a trait that runs counter to the criticism his former boss, Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer, faced for years prior to winning an NBA title last season.
In Game 5, meanwhile, we got further confirmation Morant is a superstar capable of carrying a team in the face of immense adversity. We got to witness a dunk and a fourth-quarter comeback for the ages, the sort of spell-binding performance only the greats can usually produce.
“Legs feel like I got knives in them,” Morant said immediately after Tuesday's galvanizing win, and maybe he wouldn't know he could overcome that feeling without getting pushed to the brink.
This is the bright side to watching the Grizzlies get outplayed by Minnesota for long stretches through five games. This is the bright side to the challenge awaiting them in Game 6, the challenge Curry referred to as the toughest of all in the postseason.
Memphis must close out a desperate opponent trying to stave off elimination, an opponent who has never been favored in this series, and therefore never really felt the weight of expectation in this series.
What has become the league's most compelling matchup of the first round is also what Memphis needed to endure at some point. Might as well get it over with now.