Grizzlies’ bruising style offers playoff hope

As luxuries go, the Grizzlies won’t be afforded many as they check into the NBA playoffs for the fourth consecutive season.

They don’t have a high seed in the Western Conference, meaning No. 7 Memphis will open the postseason Saturday night on the road against No. 2 Oklahoma City in Chesapeake Energy Arena.

Open a game program and the Grizzlies’ roster doesn’t sparkle with the prototypi-

Alex Conley has watched his grandson score thousands of baskets at gymnasiums across the country, from elementary school heaves to gliding layups under the bright lights of the NBA.

Yet the moment that he says foreshadowed Mike Conley’s stellar professional career, the brief sequence that told him all he needed to know about his grandson’s future, came on a FisherPrice goal in the family garage, and Grandma Conley was playing defense. Mike was 4 years old.

“He faked her out and went between the legs and made a basket,” Alex Conley said, unable to contain his laughter. “He did a 1-2-3, a back turn and went right up between the legs to the hoop.”

Flash forward two decades and Mike Conley is the star point guard for the Memphis Grizzlies, tormenting defenders with the same crafty dribbling and sly shooting touch that befuddled his grandmother way back when. Now 26, Conley is in the midst of the best year of his career, scoring 17.2 points per game and dishing out 6 assists, all while guiding the Grizzlies to the playoffs for a fourth consecutive season.

He played the role of resurrectionist after the Grizzlies’ desultory 15-19 start, absorbing more offensive responsibilities as injuries ravaged the roster and the franchise teetered just one year Hey, it’s worth a try. And, yes, it is possible I am making too much out of a ticket policy that was actually designed to stymie outof-area scalpers. But all’s fair in love and the playoffs, right?

“It’s that time again,” said Grizzlies guard Mike Conley. Believe Memphis, Part 4. The Grizzlies and Thunder will tip off Game 1 of their best- of-seven playoff series at 8:30 Saturday night. Playoff basketball is back for the fourth straight year.

Don’t take that number for granted, either. You know how many Western Conference cities are on a four-year playoff streak?

Just three: San Antonio, Oklahoma City and Memphis. No, Los Angeles, not you. It has becoming a great seasonal tradition in this city, right up there with Death Week and Memphis in May. Spring in Memphis now means pollen, the Beale Street Music Festival and

after reaching the Western Conference finals. The full complement of his skill set poured out — trademark floater, pick-and-roll mastery, surprising competitive fire — and the result was a campaign worthy of All-Star consideration.

The origin of that skill set laid the foundation for the redemptive rise of Mike Conley Jr., an undersized, ambidextrous guard whose intelligence, work ethic and athleticism melded beautifully throughout his maturation. It’s the journey of a player whose development quelled the laments of fans who labeled Conley a lottery-pick bust. And it’s a journey that left many of those same doubters pondering a very different question: Just how far can Mike Conley take us?

THE FLOATER

The story of Mike Conley’s floater begins with a toddler who wanted so desperately to play on a full-sized hoop.

But little Mike Conley — he was no more than 3 years old — was unable to get the ball to the rim with a normal shooting motion; he had to resort to a heave. So the ball was flung, up and away from his left hip and skyward toward the 10-foot goal.

The story continues at carnival booths in and around his hometown of Fayetteville, Ark., where Mike and his father, Mike Conley Sr., spent a fair bit of money shooting basketballs. Little Mike was allowed to shoot while standing on the counter, and his deadly accuracy with his right hand — he practiced at home on a Pop-A-Shot machine — won him plenty of prizes.

A dichotomy developed as Mike used his left hand to heave and his right hand for touch. It didn’t take long to diagnose the problem: Mike was actually right-handed.

“He basically taught himself how to play basketball left-handed from the time he was a little boy,” Conley Sr. said. “He used his left hand before we knew he was righthanded.”

He ate right-handed, threw a baseball righthanded, wrote righthanded — everything except shoot a basketball. And before long that fateful mistake became one of his most valuable assets.

Conley’s ambidexterity made him virtually unguardable growing up. He could penetrate the lane at will from either side, throw one-handed passes from every angle and, when he injured his left hand during high school, shoot jump shots with his right — which was sometimes better than the left.

“He actually shot the whole tournament with his right hand,” Conley Sr. said, “shot like 90 percent from the 3-point line.”

And so the self-taught lefty perfected the righty floater, simply because it felt more comfortable. For years he practiced, lofting the ball up and over the 7-foot frame of his best friend and teammate, Greg Oden.

“I never can block it,” Oden said. “Used to make me so mad.”

The shot continues to infuriate defenders due to its unorthodox nature and Conley’s unique delivery. Because of his left-handed jump shot, opponents are often lulled to sleep when he drives the lane. They assume shots in the paint will emanate from the same hand, and they are wrong.

It’s become a trademark shot that few players can match and even fewer can defend.

“He’s never even looking at the basket when he shoots it,” said Matt Terwilliger, a teammate at Ohio State. “You have no clue when he’ll release it.”