I’ll be curious what happens against Oklahoma City, especially against smaller lineups. That was a good indication that Gay isn’t forever relegated to the bench. The other notable shift was the re-appearance of Rudy Gay in the rotation, while Juancho Hernangomez didn’t play. There’s a decent case he should end every game in the playoffs - he simply has provided much more than O’Neale has. Blake Griffin will get his opportunities, but now’s the time for DeAndre Jordan, Randy Foye and Nick Young to prove their worth to this basketball team when the big lights are on.įUN FACT: The Memphis Grizzlies are 23-9 when Rudy Gay scores 20 or more points.As a result, Snyder played House to end tonight’s game. I would think that Paul isn’t willing to duplicate his experiences in New Orleans and have to handle the scoring load on his own.
Rudy gay memphis 3 point playoffs series#
CP3 is the best player in this entire series and has the ability to make his teammates step up their game when need be. THE CLIPPERS WILL WIN THIS SERIES IF Chris Paul can get the best production out of his teammates. I expect to see Memphis run a lot of plays in the paint and get their big front court duo some easy baskets early on in games.
Last years playoffs was proof enough that when the Grizzlies run the ball through their bigs, great things happen. THE GRIZZLIES WILL WIN THIS SERIES IF they run their offense through Gasol and Randolph. Memphis has also yet to lose a home game since March 18 and is winners of 10 straight at the Fed-ex Forum. The home team won every meeting between the Grizzlies and Clippers during the regular season. Home-court could be the deciding factor in this series. Instead, they lost 3 of 4 and Memphis won 6 straight to steal that advantage away from them. All they had to do was win 2 of their last 4 to clinch home-court in the first round. The only problem is that the confidence of L.A must not be very high at the moment. With Chris Paul ready to lead this team in the postseason and Blake Griffin emerging as the next big star in the NBA, the Clippers are poised to shock a few more skeptics in this years playoffs. This season should be considered a success for the “other” team from Los Angeles after qualifying for the playoffs for just the sixth time in franchise history. After shocking the #1 seeded San Antonio Spurs in the first round of last years playoffs and pushing the Thunder to the brink in the conference semi-finals, the expectations in Memphis are at an all-time high.Īfter starting the season 14-14, the Grizzlies got back on track and won 20 of their next 29 after getting star Zach Randolph back from injury and shoring up their defense with young power forward Marreese Speights.
No one is sleeping on the Memphis Grizzlies anymore. You can pretty much flip a coin on this one as this is about the only first round series that could realistically go either way. KEY MATCHUP: Zach Randolph/Marc Gasol vs Blake Griffin
RECORD OVER LAST 10 GAMES: Memphis Grizzlies (8-2) vs Los Angeles Clippers (6-4)