Memphis Almost Had Enough to Steal Game 4
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Warriors, Grizzlies & Their Crazy Game 4
Matt Bassin: Not a fun game to watch a combined 18 for 72 from three. Memphis was 9 of 35. The Dubs were 9 to 37, but you got to give credit to Memphis. Without Ja Morant, the Grizzlies used are balanced attacks. They got 21 from Jaren Jackson Jr., 19 from Tyus Jones, 17 from Kyle Anderson. Dillon Brooks had a horrible shooting night, and 5 from 19 for 12 points.
They got 10 from Steven Adams and 8 from Desmond Bane. So it was a nice group effort and it was all most because the Warriors had nothing going. Steph, as you said, 32 on 25 shots. Wiggins had a nice night as far as actual shooting percentage for 17, but Klay Thompson and Poole were both not great with 14 points.
Otto Porter Jr. chipped in with 12. So it was just a rough night all around. But the Warriors survived. They held court at home and now they go back to Memphis up 3 to 1, as opposed to tied, 2 to 2.
Ryan Griffin: Yeah, one thing you mentioned was the Rockets, and I thought you’re just doing it to take a shot at the James. That’s what I thought you were going with it, but you said, the Warriors had been over 15, over 16, whatever, to start the game, and the Grizzlies, as you said, they started off 2 with 16 from 3.
So it’s not like they were able to take advantage of the Warrior sport shooting. And, you said it was a nice all-around effort. I would say, that’s not the case. It wasn’t a nice effort, really from anybody, Jaron Jackson himself shot 7 to 21, I think. And it is a bad basketball game to watch.
A Lot of Bad, Both Ways
And that’s what you get sometimes in the playoffs two teams who were probably pretty chippy going into it with the three straight consecutive days of dirty play, I guess from games one, two, and three. Somebody had to win the game. Both teams were not able to overcome the poor start. You felt like Memphis probably should’ve been up by way more.
I have time, talking about some of the things that Golden State had gone wrong with it. But that wasn’t the case because they couldn’t get anything going for themselves either.
Matt Bassin: Nope, definitely not. It’s not like a lot of these are contested. There were plenty of open shots. They just weren’t falling in. A lot of in and outs.
A lot of just bad misses and it really did go both ways in this one. When I said that there was a nice effort to find a way. And look, like we said, they went 20 and 5 without Ja Morant this year. So they know how to play and win without him. But it is nice to see that when Ja is not there to take the boatload and look, this guy’s averaging 38 points in this series against The Dubs before getting hurt.
So he’s going to bring a lot to the table and you have to make up. What I meant was the nice balance of who was doing the scoring, and how many points they were getting from all these different players.
The shooting percentages were God awful on both sides of the ball. So that’s not good, but the way they were able to balance and get six, or seven guys in double figures to make up for that lack of a superstar in Ja Morant.
Horrendous Effort by The Grizzles
That’s what I mean by, it was a nice effort by the Grizzlies. Shooting overall ugly in this game was horrendous. And like you said, sometimes that happens, these guys ain’t perfect and professionals make mistakes too. It’s just one of those nights where the shots wouldn’t fall.
It fell just enough, especially in that fourth quarter for the Warriors to avoid being tied. Going back to Memphis, they held home court and stole one early, and now they got a chance to shut this whole thing down in Memphis and game five and get some more rest while they wait to see who wins on the other side.
Ryan Griffin: Do you think Memphis can rally in game five or do you think the Warriors?
Matt Bassin: I think they can. I think they can rally in game five. The things that we’ve talked about before and some of these we’ll talk about coming up in these other games where the role players just feel a little more comfortable.
