Underdog Pats face top seed KC. Yes, you read that right
Brady feels like his team isn’t getting any respect
NEXT GAME: vs. New Orleans Pelicans, Monday at 4:30 p.m. (TV: FOX Sports Southeast)
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – It may have been hard to hear him over the noise of the New England fans celebrating an eighth straight trip to the AFC title game, but Tom Brady is feeling disrespected.
That’s right: The three-time NFL MVP and five-time Super Bowl champion told a national TV audience after demolishing
BOSTON — Grizzlies owner Robert Pera's recent visit to Memphis included meetings with franchise cornerstones Mike Conley and Marc Gasol — something that Conley said "doesn't happen often."
Pera visited early in the week after the Grizzlies' loss at Houston on Monday and before the team's loss to the Bucks on Wednesday.
The timing of Pera's visit, with the Grizzlies mired in a prolonged slump weeks before the trade deadline, sparked speculation among some close to the organization that Pera intended to make sweeping changes.
But Pera left town with the front office, coaching staff and roster still intact.
Conley called his discussion with Pera "a good meeting."
"That’s all there was to it," Conley said after the Grizzlies' loss in Boston on Friday night. "There was nothing special that came out of it that’s going to
Grizzlies online
The Memphis Grizzlies played against the Toronto Raptors on Saturday. Read all you need to know about the game at Commercialappeal.com. the Los Angeles Chargers in the playoffs, “I know everyone thinks we suck and can’t win any games.
“We’ll see,” Brady said with a roguish look in his eyes. “Could be fun.” There hasn’t been an NFL run like the Patriots’ – at least in the Super Bowl era – with Brady and coach Bill Belichick leading the franchise to 10 straight AFC East titles and 15 in 16 years, resulting in eight trips to the Super Bowl and five NFL crowns.
“You’re talking about a dynasty,”
Sunday’s games
Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “If there is such a thing in the National Football League, they’ve been that.”
And yet as they prepare to travel to Kansas City to take on the Chiefs (13-4) in Sunday’s AFC championship game, Brady is right about one thing: The Patriots (12-5) are a 3-point underdog, and that’s an unusual position for them.
“We’re going against a team that’s the No. 1 seed in the league,” Brady said after the team’s final practice on Friday. “I’m sure there’s a lot of people that are thinking they’re going to win. Everyone can have their own opinion. We certainly have an opinion, and we’ve got to go out there and execute our best in order to accomplish that.”
Players have long found their motivation wherever they can, whether it’s the oddsmakers or experts or comments from the opposing team that go up on
NFC: L.A. Rams at New Orleans, 2:05 p.m. (FOX) AFC: New England at Kansas City, 5:40 p.m. (CBS)
change the world or anything. "We got to talk to him.” Pera said in June that, with Gasol and Conley returning healthy and the Grizzlies preparing to select fourth overall in the draft, he saw "no reason why we can't return to being a 50-plus win team."
But as the trade deadline approaches, the Grizzlies (19-26) have lost 15 of their last 18 and would need to win 31 of their final 37 games to finish with 50 wins.
Their recent struggles have sparked a clamoring for change within the fan base. Speculation that Gasol could be traded has followed.
Gasol addressed those rumors with the Commercial Appeal, saying, "Hopefully you win some games and you get those things over with. But have to win games."
After a 1-for-10 shooting night against the Celtics, Gasol declined to discuss his meeting with Pera.
“It was a private conversation and it remains private," said Gasol, who had 11 rebounds and 12 assists against Boston. "That’s what private conversations mean, right?”
After playing at Toronto on Saturday night, the Grizzlies begin a five-game home stand with only nine games remaining until the Feb. 7 trade deadline.
'Staying out of the way'
For his part, Conley is staying away from the trade talks surrounding Gasol.
“I honestly didn’t even know that was going on until somebody brought it to my attention," Conley said. "I honestly have been staying out of the way of all that, because I know what happens in January and February. Your names get thrown around everywhere, your mind goes everywhere, you start to think about what-ifs. For me, I haven’t really paid to much attention to it. Marc, I know, is just trying to lock in to what we’re doing now and accomplish what we can with this team."
Friday night's loss brought some sense of offensive relief for the offensively challenged Grizzlies. Seven players scored between eight and 26 points, and the team scored at least 24 points in every quarter.
The Grizzlies hit 16-of-35 3-pointers and mostly kept pace with a Celtics team led by superstar Kyrie Irving's 38 points.
It culminated with the team's highest scoring game since Nov. 30.
"We did a lot of good things offensively," coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. "We got contributions from guys all over the floor and up and down the roster. If we make shots from three like we did tonight, we can put pressure on teams and run the scoreboard up a little bit."
The question is whether Pera's apparent patience with the status quo will persist as the trade deadline approaches.
Conley said the meeting between star players and their team's owner "more than likely" would have happened anyway, even without the team's struggles.
"I think every year he does come down at some point," Conley said. "It just so happens that right now we’re losing, and obviously there’s going to be speculation around anything that goes on right now."
Reach Grizzlies beat writer David Cobb at david.cobb@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @Davidwcobb.