Warriors’ biggest threat: Grizzlies?
MEMPHIS — The Warriors have an uncanny ability to transform road arenas into friendly environments. On more than a handful of occasions this season, the crowd has cheered as loudly — if not louder — for the visiting team than the home one when Golden State is in town.
But in the final minutes of the Warriors’ 116-108 loss to the Grizzlies at FedEx Forum on Tuesday night, few doubted who was Memphis’ favorite franchise. “M-V-P” chants serenaded guard Ja Morant as he attempted free throws. In the waning seconds, as Golden State forward Andrew Wiggins missed a layup, fans snickered.
Such fervor suggested far greater stakes than a mid-January game. As the Warriors and Grizzlies shared five ties and exchanged seven leads in front of a raucous crowd of 17,794, one might have been lulled into thinking — if only for a moment or two — that the playoffs had arrived three months early.
Considering how Memphis seemed to have a counter for each Golden State rally, the Warriors should be thankful that they still have a while before any potential postseason series against the Grizzlies. Golden State, which sits a game behind Phoenix for the Western Conference lead, has dropped three of its past four. Meanwhile, the Grizzlies boast a league-best 10-game winning streak.
“They’re a good team,” said Warriors guard Klay Thompson, who had 14 points on 5for-13 shooting (2-for-5 from 3-point range), three rebounds and three assists in 20 minutes Tuesday — just his second game back from a 941-day hiatus. “Top-four in the West. Possible playoff matchup down the road. We do not take them lightly.”
Memphis, which was last in the NBA in points allowed per possession through 19 games, ranked 10th in defensive rating through Tuesday. With Morant
— a burgeoning MVP candidate — backed by a deep stable of versatile teammates, the Grizzlies owned the league’s fifth-best offense through Tuesday.
This means that Memphis, which opened the season with meager outside expectations, passes the most basic of tests for legitimate title contention:
With a top-10 offense and defense, the Grizzlies at least can start dreaming of a Finals run. To achieve that lofty feat and push its rebuild into overdrive, Memphis likely will need to get by the Warriors, a big ask given that Golden State just added Thompson to a 30-10 team.
But based off recent history, the Grizzlies might pose more problems for the Warriors than any other West team in a bestof-seven series. Since winning 17 of 22 games against Memphis, Golden State has dropped seven of the past 11 meetings, including a play-in loss that ended its season in May.
Now, less than halfway through this season, the Warriors have lost to the Grizzlies twice. That makes Memphis the only team to have beaten Golden State multiple times. In both wins, the Grizzlies used aggressive defense to force the Warriors into costly turnovers, create easy shots on the other end and make life difficult on Stephen Curry.
It should come as no surprise that Morant — a high-flying point guard with a knack for the big moment — scored a combined 59 points. But even in defeat Tuesday, the Warriors might have learned something that can help them in a potential playoff series against Memphis.
After Wiggins and forward Juan Toscano-Anderson had no answer for Morant early, Golden
State head coach Steve Kerr brought in guard Gary Payton II, who kept Morant in check much of the rest of the game. Morant scored 15 points in the first quarter — and 14 over the final three.
Payton and Thompson were the lone Warriors to finish with a positive plus-minus. But as Kerr acknowledged postgame, Thompson’s return, as welcomed as it is, has forced the team to adjust on the fly. Lineups and rotation patterns figure to evolve night-to-night as Thompson ramps up toward his usual workload of 30-plus minutes.
“In a strange way, these next three or four weeks are going to be about re-establishing our identity as a team,” Kerr said. “We did a great job the first 40 games becoming a great defensive team. … This next month or so, we’re going to have to shuffle the deck a bit, get some different combinations and try to get everything in order for the stretch run of the playoffs.”
It helps the Warriors that forward Draymond Green, who has missed all but seven seconds of the past two games with left calf tightness, is expected to return soon. But the Grizzlies are dealing with their own injuries, and they eventually will get back center Steven Adams (health and safety protocols) and forward Dillon Brooks (sprained left ankle) — both of whom have given the Warriors trouble in the past.
All Golden State knows now is that Memphis is a legitimate threat. As for whether the Warriors should fear the Grizzlies come playoff time? That’ll become clearer over the next few months.
“It’s a natural evolution of a team taking their next step,” Curry said of the Grizzlies. “But you can’t really talk about it right now. You’ve got to show it in the playoffs.”