Honestly, Jerryd Bayless was one of the few Grizzlies who played somewhat decent during the Spurs’ blowout Game 1 win this afternoon. So we were rolling in the postgame presser when coach Lionel Hollins couldn’t remember his name. Read More »

While the ghost of Derek Fisher nearly won this game for Oklahoma City — seriously, the Grizzlies probably expected anything else before expecting Fisher to go for 19 points — Kevin Durant was undeniably the best player on the floor. Read More »

Tonight, Memphis will be rocking with the Grizzlies back in town and their season on the line. The pressure is there — if they lose this game, not only is the series over, but there’s a chance the team gets broken up in the offseason. Chris Paul saved the Clippers in Game 2, hitting a running floater off the glass at the buzzer to win it. But he’ll need help now that they’re on the road and in hostile territory. Read More »

Go into any basketball locker room in the world — CYO leagues, middle school, high school, or even in the NBA — and you’ll find sharpshooters, bench warmers, you’ll see Jordans, adidas and Reebok, you’ll see tall oafs and slippery guards, coaches that rarely say a word and coaches that never shut up. Every team will have it’s own unique flavor, it’s own unique environment. Read More »

Fifteen-game winning streaks generally don’t end at the hands of names like Brian Roberts, Darius Miller, Ryan Anderson and Roger Mason. Then again, 15-game winning streaks generally don’t end in 24-point blowouts at the hands of a 25-win team, either … Read More »

Despite the fact that they were the top seed in the weakest region of the NCAA Tournament, you could pretty much guess that Gonzaga was going to be the first No. 1 seed to get bounced. That scenario became a reality last night as the No. 9 seed Wichita State Shockers willed themselves to an upset vicory, 76-70, handing the ‘Zags their first loss in nine weeks … Gonzaga was in the driver’s seat deep into the second half, but WSU hit a stream of incredible jumpers down the stretch while flustering Gonzaga on the defensive end, exploiting a real weakness for the No. 1-ranked team in the country [They could have used some of this]. Gonzaga was basically playing 3-vs-5 on the offensive end, because David Stockton and Mike Hart rarely, if ever shoot, leaving everything to Kevin Pangos, Kelly Olynyk and Elias Harris to play against five guys. That might work when you’re beating up on the University of Portland, but that doesn’t fly in this setting. Read More »

You would think a hush would’ve rained over Cleveland. But on top of the constant hum, you could almost hear fans crying and wailing, and even Cleveland’s epic broadcast team sounded like they wanted to go lock themselves in a closet. It’s not every day you blow a 27-point lead… and it’s not every lifetime you can blow that lead against a team on a 23-game winning streak that has one of your city’s most hated athletes ever. Read More »

As much as we want to give credit to Kobe Bryant for icing the Lakers win in Brooklyn last night, L.A. should throw the Nets a bone. Brooklyn did everything they could outside of express mailing the W to Hollywood. Down the stretch, the Nets endured a couple of bad shots from Brook Lopez – one was an ugly airball – on poorly executed plays. Then, Gerald Wallace threw away an inbounds pass. Read More »

The last time Rudy Gay posted up Evan Turner, the Sixers appointed nerd damn near ripped Gay’s arm out of his socket. That was back in 2011, and since then, Gay, Zach Randolph and the Grizz can’t go a week without someone pointing out that their marriage is doomed for failure. This time, the Gay-on-Turner post-up worked out a little better in Memphis’ three-point win in Philadelphia. Read More »

Before Ric Bucher left ESPN this fall, he tweeted one of the more interesting behind-the-scenes nuggets to take into consideration whenever Oklahoma City and the Lakers play. Bucher said that underneath the “We’re all friends!” vibe Team USA put out in winning gold in London last summer, Kobe Bryant was trying to create a wedge between Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant by telling Russ he deserved to be the team’s alpha male. The young OKC stars were wise to the Mamba’s plot then and apparently want to destroy L.A. each time they play the Lakers now because of what Kobe tried to do. Read More »