Zach attack holds Denver back
GRIZZLIES 91, NUGGETS 84
memphis, tenn. » Sooner or later, you have to deal with the defense.
Because no matter how much the Memphis Grizzlies try to do something different with their style of play — go smaller, play faster— they can always get back towhat makes them who they are.
Defense. And Zach Randolph. He has been the odd man out in their philosophical transformation this season, going from a starter to a backup. But when the Grizzlies need him, he’s there. He’s always there. He was there again Friday night, making all the important baskets down the stretch to put away the Nuggets 91- 84 at the FedEx Forum.
“Hemade a big difference coming off the bench,” said Nuggets forward Darrell Arthur, a former teammate of Randolph’s in Memphis. “They went stretch, where they gave it to him about seven, eight times in a row. And he either got fouled or got a bucket.”
Randolph scored 10 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter, and the Grizzlies were energized in the final twominutes after a tussle between Mario Chalmers and Jusuf Nurkic resulted in a double technical. The Nuggets were down four points at the time, with 2: 46 left in the game.
From there, they were outscored 9- 6 to end the game. Chalmers, who had hit just 1- of- 11 shots before that, made his last two, both 3- pointers. The Nuggets
made one field goal in that span, a Nurkic layupwith 11 seconds left. Everything else was free throws.
Randolph, in his reserve role, outscored the Denver bench 2423. The Nuggets were led by Danilo Gallinari’s 29 points and eight rebounds.
“Tough loss, but I do like the fact that we played very, very hard,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “We just can’t beat ourselves. We’re not good enough. We’re not a team that has so much talent that we can come out and give away 24 points ( on turnovers) and make it up. That’s hard for us.”
The Grizzlies put the screws to the Nuggets in the second quarter, bumping every cutter, hardhedging on screens, doubling the ball handler and jumping back to their manwhen he picked the ball up. And, of course, they contested every shot.
The result was the Nuggets scored only seven points in the second quarter. Seven. They shot 3- of- 21 from the field. They committed seven turnovers. And they trailed 49- 37 at halftime.
“Turnovers were a part of it,” Malone said. “Pace, this was definitely a Memphis Grizzlies- paced game. We never created the pace wewanted to try and create, so it’s not just awalk- it- upand post- us- up barroom brawl, which it became.”
TheNuggets figured things out in the third quarter, especially Gallinari, Darrell Arthur and Gary Harris. That trio combined for 25 of theNuggets’ 29 points in the third quarter as the team, led by its defense, cut the lead to 6766 going into the fourth quarter.
But too much Randolph doomed them in the end.