State of play
In this exhausting and compact 66-game NBA regular season the schedule makers somehow found a way to grant the Grizzlies a reprieve.
Sunday actually marked the first of three consecutive days without a game for the Griz. Coach Lionel Hollins & Co. will play just twice this week after 21/ months of working at least every other day.
But don’t expect the surging Griz (22-15) to rest on their laurels. They will get back to work today after forgoing any basketball-related activity on Sunday. No matter how much the down time is needed for physical and mental recuperation, the Griz want to avoid having the time off disrupt their momentum.
Memphis, winners of four straight and 10 of the past 12 games, intends to keep fine tuning areas on both ends of the court.
“Once we rest back up, (the schedule) tightens back in terms of the number of TV, radio: Sportssouth, NBA TV; WMFS 680 AM/92.9 FM
games and days,” Hollins said. “We will have some time to work on some stuff.”
Hollins doesn’t plan to put his squad in a training camp atmosphere over the next two days like he did coming out of All-star break.
The Griz have been easy on the eyes for Hollins because of suffocating defense and sharp offensive execution, particularly late in games. Memphis provided its latest clutch effort during last Saturday’s 100-83 victory over the Detroit Pistons in Fedexforum.
When it would have been easy for the Griz to give in to fatigue playing for the third time in four nights, they instead showed incredible endurance. Memphis put the game away by scoring 17 unanswered points and hold- ing the Pistons without a point for six minutes in the fourth quarter.
“It shows how much we’ve grown as a team,” forward Rudy Gay said. “I wouldn’t even say we would have lost that game three or four years ago. We would have lost that game earlier this season.”
Hollins has nothing but praise for a group that has increasingly rallied around the absence of Zach Randolph. The star power for- ward has healed from a torn medial collateral ligament in his right knee but there still is no timetable for his return.
Meanwhile, the newcomers — Marreese Speights, Dante Cunningham and Quincy Pondexter — continue to keep the Griz running smoothly.
“Those two days after the All-star break were huge,” Hollins said. “For the guys who haven’t been here their defensive understanding is getting better and their offensive understanding is getting better. Before we were just playing and trying to point people to where they’re suppose to be. Not having any practice time was a big reason.
“Now we are getting in the groove and playing. We just have to continue to play and continue to attack and continue to make the plays that are winning plays. We’ve done that.” — Ronald Tillery:
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