Opposites attract
Griz, Heat take different paths to become NBA’S hottest teams
One team is big on offense but short on humility
This has been a great month for us,” Miami Heat forward LeBron James said. “We’ve been playing some great basketball.”
The other squad stands tall defensively with an incredibly shrinking ability to score, making its coach sound almost apologetic.
“You hear the old coaching cliché that you can’t turn it off and on,” Griz coach Lionel Hollins said. “We aren’t that talented. We have to be prepared. We have to be mentally and physically ready to come and play.”
The Grizzlies and Heat are the NBA’s hottest teams even though they have gone about manufacturing winning streaks in different ways. Miami won 12 straight games behind offensive firepower that’s generated 109 points per game on 52-percent shooting.
Memphis, meanwhile, has won eight games in a row on the strength of a tenacious defense that’s yielded just 86.6 points per game on 43-percent shooting.
Opposites attract Friday night in a nationally televised game on ESPN in American Airlines Arena.
“They’re rolling. We’re
rolling,” Griz guard Tony Allen said. “Obviously, it’s going to be a hostile environment. We just want to go in there and play Grizzly basketball.”
Memphis hasn’t lost since Feb. 6 at Atlanta. The Griz have only allowed one team (Sacramento) to score 100 or more points during their streak. Miami hasn’t lost since Feb. 1 against Indiana. In all, the Heat have won 17 of 19 games, and only twice have scored fewer than 100 points during their streak.
“I just thought that throughout (February) we found a way to get better,” Heat guard Ray Allen recently told Miami media after a 141-129 double-overtime win against Sacramento. “We won so many different ways, but we want to continue. This is the time of the year where we have to continue to get better because other teams are doing it.”
Memphis is 9-3 since trading Rudy Gay last month. More notably, the Grizzlies’ winning streak, which matches a season high set in November, coincides with Hollins’ pregame media speech to purge the team of negativity Feb. 8.
When the Griz won eight straight games from Nov. 2-17, they averaged 102.3 points and their efficient offense was the talk of the NBA. Memphis isn’t scoring as many points, but it has rediscovered efficiency. The Griz even assisted on 21 of 29 baskets Wednesday in a 90-84 win over the Dallas Mavericks — a game in which Memphis overcame a 25-point deficit.
Since the Griz acquired Tayshaun Prince, Austin Daye and Ed Davis in a three-team trade involving Gay, the Griz have improved their assist rate to .636.
Memphis ranks sixth in the NBA during that span, compared with 25th before the trade.
“We’re definitely going to have to take good shots and share the ball,” Griz center Marc Gasol said of facing the Heat.
Said Griz point guard Mike Conley: “It’s going to be a fun game. We love playing in the spotlight. We’re going to just try to do what we do.”
Miami certainly is giddy about James and guard Dwyane Wade rounding into championship form. During the Heat’s streak in February, the duo have exploded offensively.
Wade re- established himself as a serious scoring threat and James shot 64 percent from the field, becoming the first player with at least 200 attempts to shoot at that clip since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in March 1983.
Miami is two wins shy of tying the franchise record of 14 straight, set in 2004-05.
Memphis won t he teams’ first meeting Nov. 11 in FedExForum. That was with Rudy Gay and almost four months ago.
Still, the teams are meeting at the same place on the NBA schedule: a point where teams try to peak in advance of the playoffs.
“They’re going to be ready and we’re going to be ready,” Griz forward Zach Randolph said. “I’m sure they (remember Nov. 11) but so what?”