TIME TO ROAR
Griz prep for playoffs after battling Warriors tonight
B.A Balton with B.A. Balton Sign Co. installs a series of banners depicting Zach Randolph on the side of FedExForum Tuesday morning. Playoff tickets for the first two home games go on sale today, and in tonight’s regular-season finale the Grizzlies will try to prevent the Golden State Warriors from getting an NBA-record 73rd victory to break their tie with the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls. On Tuesday night, Randolph scored 14 points but the Griz lost to the Clippers 110-84 in Los Angeles.
LOS ANGELES — It wasn’t a fair fight. Let us count the ways. The Grizzlies arrived at Staples Center having lost a total of 291 games to injuries. When they began the next-to-last game of the regular season, the Griz fielded their 28th different starting lineup of the season.
And so it should come as no surprise that the Grizzlies suffered a 110-84 loss Tuesday night to the fully stocked Los Angeles Clippers.
Then again, the Clippers sat super sub Jamal Crawford for rest so he could play in their season finale while every other key player rested for the postseason.
The Grizzlies have no luxuries at this point.
That was evident by halftime when Memphis trailed 61-43 and was led in scoring by rookie Jarell Martin’s 10 points. Yes, the same first-year guy who figured to spend this season getting healthy and mostly playing with the Grizzlies’ NBA Development League affiliate, the Iowa Energy.
Martin’s first-half productivity came in the fewest minutes
of anyone who played in the first half.
If any game screamed that the injury-riddled Griz could be emotionally and physically drained, it was this one. They struggled to execute. They struggled to score. The Griz couldn’t even tangle with the Clippers like they normally do in part because veteran swingman Tony Allen sat a second straight game because of a hamstring injury.
In winning their sixth straight game, the Clippers pushed the Grizzlies down to the seventh seed in the Western Conference playoff standings. Memphis (42-39) has an identical record with the sixth-place Dallas Mavericks. But Dallas owns the tiebreaker and would leap Memphis if the playoffs began today.
There still is one regular-season game on the schedule and it’s likely that the Griz will remain in seventh place for a first-round playoff pairing with the San Antonio Spurs. The Griz will face the 72-9 Golden Warriors in Oracle Arena tonight in both teams’ regularseason finale. Postseason play begins this weekend.
Golden State, which beat Memphis 100-99 last Saturday in FedExForum, will try to set the NBA’s regular-season record for wins and top the 72 wins of the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls.
The Griz could end up finishing this season as a footnote.
They hardly made a statement against the Clippers and trailed 84-64 entering the fourth quarter.