The top-seeded Golden State Warriors (7-2 SU, 4-5 ATS) can advance to the Western Conference final with a win over the No. 5 Memphis Grizzlies (6-4 SU, 5-4-1 ATS) Friday. You can watch the game live on ESPN.
Down and out just days ago, the Golden State Warriors suddenly look alive and well again. The Warriors cruised to their second straight blowout win over the Grizzlies, 98-78 on Wednesday, and are a win away from their first conference final in 39 years. The Warriors scored a NBA-high 110 points during the regular season but have eclipsed that just once this postseason, and the under has cashed in each of their last six games.
Break out all the clichés for the Grizzlies because their backs are against the wall in this do-or-die situation that’s a must-win game. They better leave it all on the court Friday or they will be hitting the golf course early because there is no tomorrow if they lose Game Six. In other words Memphis is facing elimination after getting trounced Wednesday with their poorest offensive showing since the third game of the season.
KEY INJURY
Memphis swingman tony Allen didn’t play Wednesday with a hamstring injury and is questionable for Friday’s game. He missed the final nine games of the regular season with the same injury and coach Dave Joerger said Allen re-aggravated the injury in Game Three. He was limited to four points in 16 minutes Monday before taking a seat on the bench Wednesday.
QUOTE TO NOTE
“We shot 42 times in the paint, that’s low for us. We’d like to do it more. The problem is there are a lot of people in there, so how do you do that? You’ve got to open up the floor, knock in shots from the perimeter and make them wonder a little bit when they come to double team.” – Grizzlies coach Dave Joerger
BETTING TRENDS
- Golden State is 7-4 ATS in its last 11 road games.
- Memphis is 7-2-1 ATS in its last 10 home games.
- The UNDER is 9-2 in Memphis’ last 11 games overall.
KEY STATS
78: The 78 points allowed were the fewest by a Warriors playoff opponent since Game Six of the 1975 Western Conference final against the Chicago Bulls.
6: Warriors guard Stephen Curry became the first player in NBA playoff history to record six steal and six three-pointers in the same game.
ANALYSIS AND PREDICTION
Since going down two games to one in the series, the top-seeded Warriors have rediscovered their regular season form – swarming defense, pace-and-space offense and lots of long-range swishes. And for the second time in as many games the Grizzlies had no answer for them. Led by MVP Stephen Curry, the Warriors ran away from the Griz on Wednesday, eliminating an early 13-point deficit and building on an eight-point halftime advantage to lead by as many as 24 points in the fourth quarter. “That’s our brand of basketball. We got a couple of stops and all of a sudden the game started changing. It’s tough for anybody to keep up with us in transition, but that has to start on the defensive end,” Draymond Green said.
It’s hard enough to win games with key players sitting on the bench in street clothes and even more difficult trying to knock off the NBA’s best team. But that’s what the Grizzlies are faced with. They were without Mike Conley for Game One and got blasted by the Warriors. He returns and the club has a different look whacking the Dubs to take a 2-1 series lead. Defensive stopper Tony Allen misses Wednesday’s game with a hamstring issue and the Warriors take advantage. The Grizzlies simply have no answer and when their bread and butter offensive philosophy of pounding the ball down low for Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph fails the result is what happened Wednesday.
The Warriors made the appropriate adjustments following Game Three and it’s time for the Grizzlies to do the same. One obvious adjustment would be to simply play better. The Griz struggled again with Golden State’s in-your-face defense shooting 39.8 percent and it’s tough to win when you don’t score, no matter how good your defense is. “At some point we’re going to have to score 100 points to win a game against them. You just can’t keep running your defense at them,” coach Dave Joerger said. That time is Friday.
Memphis 101, Golden State 95
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