1/29/13
If anyone wanted to watch an NBA game tonight, you didn’t
want to miss this 76ers game. It was a fun game to watch. These are two teams
who like to emphasize playing defense. In the last meeting, the 76ers won, but
the Grizzlies were without Rudy Gay. This game, the Grizzlies were without Mike
Conley Jr. with a sprained ankle and Quincy Pondexter has a knee injury. The
76ers were still without Jason Richardson, who has left knee synovitis. Earlier
this month, the Grizzlies were involved in a trade that had Marreese Speights,
Josh Selby, and Wayne Ellington shipped to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Jon
Leuer. This trade was a way for the Grizzlies to dump salary and try to keep
their core of Zach Randolph, Marc Gasol, and Rudy Gay (who has been the subject
of trade rumors) together for years to come. The 76ers were coming off one of
their best regular season performances on Saturday against the New York Knicks.
They also made a few changes in the starting lineup as they inserted Spencer
Hawes and Nick Young into the lineup. Lavoy Allen and Dorell Wright were sent
to the bench. That change paid dividends against the Knicks. Could they repeat
that same performance against the Grizzlies?
The first half was very entertaining as both teams took
turns on who displayed flashes of brilliance. The 76ers had a fantastic first
quarter and were right where they left off on Saturday against the Knicks. The
76ers attacked the basket and made their shots. Hawes surprisingly was playing
like a center and played inside. He was making his jump hook shots and rolling
to the basket on the pick and roll plays. In the second quarter, the Grizzlies
overcame a 17 point deficit the 76ers had in the game. The 76ers got away from
what they did in the first quarter and went back to what they’ve been doing the
entire season. They were shooting, and missing their jump shots and not
attacking the basket. The Grizzlies were making almost everything. The
Grizzlies led at halftime by a score of 57-54. Thaddeus Young led the 76ers in
scoring with 13 points. Jerryd Bayless, filling in for Conley Jr., led the
Grizzlies with 19 points.
The second half was even better than the first half. Both
teams played solid basketball. The defense was more clamped in this half than
the first, and the game went down to the wire. This half was like a duel
between Gay and Evan Turner. Turner single handedly took over the 76ers in the
second half and kept his team in the game. Gay did the same thing for the
Grizzlies. The 76ers had chances to close this game out with a win. However,
the Grizzlies kept fighting and the 76ers had poor offensive execution in the
final few minutes of the game. The Grizzlies won the game when Gay grabbed an
offensive rebound on a missed shot by Bayless and leaned into his shot and
dropped an easy two with 13 seconds left in the game. The 76ers had a chance to
retake the lead, but Thaddeus Young missed a short jump hook shot that he
normally makes 80% of the time. The 76ers had to foul the Grizzlies with 1
second left on the clock. The Grizzlies sank their two free throws to make it a
three point game. The 76ers had one more chance to tie the game when Turner
inbounded the ball to Nick Young and his three point shot got blocked by Marc
Gasol and that ended the game. The Grizzlies won by a final score of 103-100.
Gay, Gasol, and Bayless scored a combined 74 points out of 103. I have to point
out that Bayless had a season-high 21 points filling in for Conley Jr. For the
76ers, Evan Turner finished with a season-high 27 points and seven assists.
Thaddeus Young collected 23 points, seven rebounds, and four steals. Jrue
Holiday had a double-double in the game. He scored 18 points and dished 10
assists. Nick Young finished with 13 points.
Overall, the 76ers had another hard fought game, but
couldn’t close it out with a win. I do have to say that this is the best
stretch of 76ers basketball I’ve seen since two months ago. They are playing
with energy, playing at a quicker pace on both offense and defense, and
starting out fast in the beginning of games. We have to accept the fact that
the 76ers won’t be a team that will get to the free throw line as often. The
thing they need to fix now is closing out games. It may be tough to do because
they don’t have a go-to scorer that has a clutch gene. The one thing I was
surprised with in this game was the performance of Zach Randolph for the
Grizzlies. This guy was named last week to the all-star game and he looked
lackadaisical out on the court. He may have grabbed 12 rebounds, but he only
scored four points. That’s not all-star caliber numbers.
How can the 76ers do
a better job of closing out games? Sound off and stay tuned on Wednesday when
the 76ers host the Washington Wizards. I will be in attendance of that game.
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