The San Antonio Spurs and Memphis Grizzlies are knotted at two gamesiece heading into a pivotal Game 5 on Tuesday. San Antonio won the first two in the series, but Memphis has won the next two to even the series before the venue switches back to the Lone Star State. The home team has won every game so far this series and although that bodes well for San Antonio, the Spurs were hoping this series would be over already after how the first set of games went.
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The first two games of this series weren’t close. San Antonio beat Memphis by 29 and 14 points and it seemed like the rout was on. However, Memphis dug deep and discovered something that many didn’t think existed based on its response.
Although the Grizzlies failed to cover the first two games, they covered each of the last two at home as an underdog. The Game 3 win gave Memphis hope, but the Game 4 overtime win put the Grizzlies over the moon. Now they have hope that they can steal the series if they can win a road game.
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With Tony Allen still out, Kawhi Leonard has continued to dominate for the Spurs. He only tallied 18 points in Game 3, but shot well in relatively limited action. However, he turned the scoring touch back on in Game 4.
Leonard went off in Game 4 for the Spurs. He went 14 of 30 from the floor and 7 of 10 from beyond the arc on his way to tallying 43 points in a two-point loss to the Grizzlies.
However, the issue with the Spurs was that no one else is really stepping up their scoring. Only Tony Parker and LaMarcus Aldridge finished the day in double figures as well in Game 4 and the Grizzlies might be deploying an old Spurs strategy. When LeBron James was on the Cavaliers the first time around, the Spurs said they would let him do whatever he wanted and limit everyone else and that seems to be what Memphis is doing here.
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Other than Leonard, no one could hit from deep for San Antonio in Game 4. As a whole, the Spurs hit 9 of 30 from downtown, but without Leonard’s major contribution, those numbers plummeted. San Antonio hit 2 of 20 threes as a team outside of Leonard in Game 4.
This was the best three-point shooting team in the NBA in the regular season and the Spurs can’t afford another poor shooting night like that. If just one of those missed threes had gone in, San Antonio would be up 3-1 and hold a commanding lead, but were punished for missing treys. That won’t happen for a second time this postseason.
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It was all Mike Conley for the Grizzlies in Game 4. The point guard almost notched a triple-double and went off from the floor. Conley hit 13 of 23 shots from the field and helped the team grab a double-digit rebounding advantage against the Spurs as well.
San Antonio should be a double digit favorite once again in Game 5 and it’s hard to see a way that the Spurs don’t get the win here. Gregg Popovich is too good of a coach to lose to a team like Memphis and put the team’s postseason hopes on the brink. This should be a statement game for Kawhi and San Antonio with the Spurs winning by double digits.
NBA Odds: Spurs 107, Grizzlies 91
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