It looked like a done deal at the end of the third quarter, but man did the Knicks make it interesting. The Grizzlies survived a 39 point fourth quarter from the Knicks last night and held on to win their third in a row, 119-112.

Just like their previous game in Boston, the Grizzlies jumped out to an early lead and held it for most of the game. They were up eight after the first, up 13 at half time, and led by as much as 29 in the third quarter. Then things started to break down.

The Grizz built the lead off dominant rebounding, smart shots and very tough defense. Going into half time the Knicks were shooting 36% from the floor, and the Grizzlies held a 15-2 fastbreak advantage. The Knicks just couldn’t do anything.

“Unbelievable defense in the first half. Unbelievable defense in the second half,” Lionel Hollins said after the game. “One was positive one was negative.”

The second half defensive breakdown resulted in the most second half points (70) scored by a Grizzlies’ opponent in FedExForum this season, and the most points given up by the Grizzlies in the fourth quarter (39).

But it was the big nights from Randolph (24), Mayo (22) Gay (20) and Mike Conley (18) that had the Grizz up big by the time the run started.

The Grizz did not finish as strongly as they did in Boston, but they started strong enough to hang on for the win.

The Grizzlies Sold Sam Young Jerseys Last night
Well, I would think so anyway. We definitely saw a guy with a custom Sam Young Jersey just after Young had scored 9 of his eventual 13 points. Young was everywhere during the first half, including one possession in which Young made a layup and drew a foul, missed his free throw, got the rebound off the free throw, passed the ball off, got the ball back on the wing, then charged at the basket for a dunk… which he missed. Oh well, nobody’s perfect.

Young, Marcus Williams and DaMarre Carroll were again productive off the bench, with the group scoring 23 points, grabbing 13 boards and adding 6 assists. Hasheem Thabeet played two minutes – finished with a block and a lot of zeroes.

Dunk of the Game
I’m going with Sam Young, who got another chance to jam the ball home in the second and didn’t miss this time. Honorable mention goes to Mike Conley, who didn’t dunk, but dished out two of his six assists on two of the Grizzlies’ four dunks of the night.

Dunk Count: 4; Young -1 Gasol – 1, Mayo -1, Gay -1,

You Had to Be There
A Grizzlies possession in the second quarter featured four consecutive offensive rebounds, three straight inside shots and no calls, until a foul was finally called after Marc Gasol was manhandled under the bucket. Despite the Grizz lead sitting at 23, the small crowd (announced at just over 12K) gave the team a standing ovation just before Gasol sank two free throws. Even in the blowout the fans were loving it.

Twitter Watch
Nothing after the game. Seriously. Nothing. Unless you follow Marcus Williams. His tweets are protected so you’ll have to get them for yourself.

Final Shots
Grizzlies PA announcer Rick Trotter was not with the team, and will miss the rest of the season for personal reasons. The Commercial Appeal reported that it is not a health issue. The Grizzlies radio pre-game and halftime host, Ken Kincaid, ran the PA last night and will continue to do so for the rest of the season. Rick Trotter had sung the National Anthem at the last Grizzlies’ home win against the Nets, now his last of the season. A five-year-old patient at St. Jude sang yesterday’s national anthem. Former Ole Miss and Saints star Deuce McAllister was in the house to shoot the “celebrity prize cannon.” Grizzlies’ MC Ashley referred to Mike Conley as “Sean Conley,” Conley responded by scoring 18. David Lee threw an inbounds pass directly at Lionel Hollins, causing the coach to nearly get run over by, again, Mike Conley, who was diving for the errant throw. Grizzlies have won eight of their last 10 games against eastern conference teams. The losses both came at home during the Grizz home losing streak of February.

The Grizzlies next game is tonight against Denver. Nuggets coach George Karl will not be with the team. Karl is battling throat cancer.

Follow Doug Gillon (that's me!) on twitter during the games for updates and insight.

So is the Bizzaro run over? Maybe. At least the agonizing home defeats are. Last night the Grizzlies used solid production from their bench and the terrible play of the New Jersey Nets to end an eight game losing streak at home and finally hear Rick Trotter yell “Grizzlies Win!” as the confetti fell for at FedExForum for the first time since Feb. 1.

It wasn’t exactly pretty…
The Grizzlies third quarter woes continued in this one, as they were outscored 26 to 14 there. Despite the miserable quarter, the Grizzlies never trailed after the first, as they had built a 20 point lead in the second quarter, and went into the half up 16. The closest the Nets got was two points.

Coach Hollins said after the game that the lackadaisical play in the third quarter was perhaps his team not realizing how important it was for them to snap their losing streak at home, but was happy with the win.

No Z-Bo, no problem?
Well not exactly. While the Grizzlies rebounding numbers were still ok (52 compared to 45 from the Nets), Grizzlies big men Marc Gasol and Hamed Haddadi were stretched defensively, picking up fouls more quickly than usual without Randolph to help on the defensive end. Gasol and Haddadi both finished with 5 fouls.

The team did not discuss Randolph’s absence before the game, staying focused on playing with who they had. Hollins said the real detriment to having Randolph out was missing “that dominant post player who always draws a double-team,” but added that they were still able to win because of the bench players stepping up.

Big Night for the Bench
When asked about how Randolph’s absence affected their game, center Marc Gasol looked irritated.

“We’ve got a lot of good guys here,” he said. “We’ve got enough good guys that we should be able to win without him for a few games.”

At least last night he was right. Sam Young continued his solid production with 10 points, Marcus Wliams had 8, Hamed Haddadi added 3 points and 2 rebounds, and Darrell Arthur had 7 points and 3 rebounds in his first start of the season. The bench star of the night however, was DaMarre Carroll, who finished with a season high 10 points, 8 rebounds and 3 steals.

Benefiting from a small New Jersey lineup that allowed Hollins to play him at power forward rather than small forward, Carroll got most of his points the same way he did in college, from offensive rebounds and putbacks, but he even added a jump shot for the first time in a while. Carroll clocked 24 minutes and almost hit his first NBA double-double.

Carroll had not been playing much in February or March, and saw Randolph’s absence as an opportunity.

“I’ve just been sitting at the end of the bench, patiently waiting, lifting weights and coming in at night to get in extra shots, and tonight I just tried to come out and stay true to myself,” Carroll said.

But Carroll also said that Lionel Hollins gets on him more than any other rookie, which is odd considering Carroll wasn’t demoted to the d-league.

You had to be there
The crowd was tiny - announced at over 10,000 but appeared to be about half that in reality. First signs of life from the crowd came when Tiger favorite Chris Douglas-Roberts checked in. The crowd responded with a big applause even before Grizzlies announcer Rick Trotter said his name.

Really he should just add the Chris to make a complete circle.
Photo by Chase Gustafson

Although small, the crowd was excited the entire game, cheering loudly during the first half, booing even louder during the third quarter, and enjoying the win at the end. They even paid enough attention to boo a botched game of Grizzlies Tic-Tac-Toe during a timeout in the second.

Dunk of the Game
There were a bunch in this one, especially in the first half. Rudy Gay, Marc Gasol and O.J. Mayo kept in simple with their dunks, preferring to just get the ball in the basket, rather than show off (which is probably good when you’re on an eight game losing streak). His dunks still looked good, but we’ll have to give this one to DaMarre Carroll, who found a wide open back door late in the fourth and pounded home a two handed jam to put the Grizzlies one point shy of 100 and essentially put the game out of reach for the Nets.
Dunk Count: 5, Carroll - 1 Gay – 1, Gasol -2, Mayo -1,

Twitter Watch
Hasheem Thabeet
GoodMornin Wonderful World!!!!! I’m Back.. Ya’ll Have a nice and Blessed Day!!!

Rudy Gay
No disrespect to Hurt Locker! But Avatar was the greatest of all time! (Kanye shrug) lol

Grizz
Well it’s the end of my b day weekend, thx to all my furry homies for coming out and hangin with me. Best b day game yet!!

Final Shots
Hasheem Thabeet was back in Memphis after being recalled from the D-League (See tweet above). He sported a new, shorter haircut and sat the bench. New Jersey guards Courtney Lee and Devin Harris lit up the Grizzlies for a combined 58 points. Games are much more comfortable without Ronald McDonald ruining Black History Month. The Grizz should keep honoring players through March without the clown just to make up for February.

The Grizzlies next game is on the road at Boston Tomorrow at 6:30 pm. You can follow @douggillon and @cerrito for tweets during the games, or come watch the game with the entire Memphis Sport crew and rapper Teflon Don tomorrow night at the Poplar Lounge.

If Lionel Hollins word is any indication, Grizzlies fans shouldn’t get too excited thinking about the postseason just yet. After another embarrassing home loss to the Atlanta Hawks last night, the Grizzlies enter the all-star break with a four game losing streak and a 1-4 record in February. Lakers win aside – February has been as bad to the Grizzlies as December and January were good.

While the second year coach admitted fatigue and matchup problems have been part of the recent skid, he also made a point to say that the team had “overachieved” during the 11 game home win streak that took the team above .500 and had many fans and Memphians expecting a playoff berth, and hoping to finally seal that playoff win.

Not so fast, says Hollins. “I’m excited about where we are at 26 and 25 versus where we were when I took over this team last year, and I’d like to keep that in perspective as we go forward. We’re a team that’s trying to overachieve and that’s trying to get some respect around the league, and we’ll continue to do that the second half of the seaon.”

They even let Z-Bo down…
The announced crowd of just over 10,400 was the lowest in months, despite Zach Randolph giving away 500 tickets to the game earlier in the day. In the early days of the Grizzlies 11 game home win streak, even a small crowd of about 11,000 could get loud and make the place hop a little bit (hell even the 1-2K that came back for the end of the water main game had some fire) but last night’s crowd had about as much life as a chia pet. It was the same story last week against Houston, even though that crowd was significantly larger. Interest from both the team and the fans seems to have waned following the win over Los Angeles.

Smaller, Faster, Stronger
Much like the loss to Houston, the Grizzlies found themselves outmuscled and outrun by a smaller, quicker, deeper team that got hot beyond the arc. The two teams are very similar in their lineups, style of play, and the fact that they have both destroyed the Grizzlies twice this season.

Time for a Trade?
Hollins and the Grizzlies wouldn’t say anything about a potential trade coming up before the February 18 trade deadline, but didn’t rule out a potential trade either. So there’s that.

But with Jamal Crawford’s 28 points off the bench outdoing the entire host of Grizzlies backups, talk of the Grizzlies needing to find a bench scorer continued.

Eventually Hollins said that he wants to see dramatic improvement from his younger players, and that if a trade does not happen, that will be key to a strong second half of the season.

“That’s life. Sometimes it’s like poker,” Hollins said. “You get a hand you gotta play it.”

You Had to Be There
But you weren’t. And it showed. Work on that.

Dunk of the Game
Dunks were a redeeming factor in this one.

There was a lot of this, but mostly from the Hawks.
Photo by Chase Gustafson

Atlanta was on the verge of attempting 3-point dunks, and although Rudy Gay can’t quite jump like Josh Smith, the Grizzlies still did post a few nice dunks, with the slam of the night being a flying one-hander from Rudy Gay.
Dunk Count: Gasol – 1 Gay – 1; Hawks – 4

Twitter Watch
I’ll spare you the details, but twitter watching indicates Rudy Gay, Mike Conely and DeMarre Carroll were all rooting for Peyton Manning and the Colts during the Super Bowl. Don’t expect any ‘who dat’ cheers from them I’m guessing.

Rudy Gay
Thanks for the love yall! I can’t wait to compete with the USA National team!
Rudy Gay and O.J. Mayo were named to the National Team today.

Hasheem Thabeet
d[-_-]b

Sam Young
What time is the game...
This was about the Super Bowl, not the Hawks game.

Damarre Carroll
Damarre has either closed his account or amped up his privacy settings. Oh well.

Final Shots
Ronald McDonald coming out with the player honored for Black History Month isn’t getting any less strange. Between him and the Joker (“here we go” to fire up the crowd before the fourth quarter) there were at least two clowns in the arena unless you count Memphis Sport managing editor @cerrito. Then there’s three. Zach Randolph made a layup in the middle of a cartwheel – see top photo. O.J. Mayo had the play of the game with a reverse fast-break layup. Mike Conley was featured on the cover of the gameday program as a kind of backhanded compliment, the headline accompanying his picture said “Surrounded by Stars.” Coach Lionel Hollins told the team to enjoy themselves during the week long break.

The Grizzlies are on a one week break as part of NBA All-Star Weekend. Zach Randolph will be particiapating in the All-Star game, and O.J. Mayo and Marc Gasol will play in the Rookie-Sophomore game. The Grizzlies next game will be at FedExForum on February 16 against Phoenix.

What the hell just happened? How did the 11-straight at home team get demolished at home after three days rest by what was supposed to be an equal opponent? Coach?

“You ever been in a physical fight and gotten your ass beat? That what happened.”

Ok. Thanks. But about why…

“Look if I knew the answers to all your questions I wouldn’t be coaching. I’d be making a lot more money as a coach’s consultant.”

Riiiight.

Crap, Crap and more Crap
The center of last night’s miserable performance was in rebounds, where the Grizzlies were beaten 50-35. Despite having a major size advantage with Gasol, Thabeet and Randolph, Houston’s small inside players pushed the Grizzlies around – messing up their timing and positioning regularly. Aside from getting routinely out hustled and outplayed, the Grizzlies looked confused and frustrated, fumbling the ball often and missing easy shots.

What is this round thing?
Photo by Chase Gustafson

Flux Capacitor
Between the amazingly apathetic crowd (I mean seriously? I think I’ve seen more energy at the Westminster Dog Show) terrible play by the team and overall feeling of hopelessness sitting around the Forum, it seemed like the Grizz had taken their Delorean back to last season, and forgot that they had actually gotten pretty good. Since this is the second time in two weeks the Grizzlies have lost two in a row (after not doing it for most of December and January) there is some cause for concern that the team has already peaked.

So coach, what do you tell your team after a loss like this?

“I tell them we’re going to get on the plane and go to Minnesota.”

Yeah that should do it.

Who is approving this stuff?
I normally avoid talking about what other press outlets are doing in their coverage, even if it’s tempting, but today’s CA sports cover leaves me no choice. Take a look.

Shane we always love it when you come to town...

I mean that headline... with that picture... If you can’t see what’s wrong here - kudos. I can’t un-see it.

You had to be there
Despite Hollins surrendering with about 5 minutes left in the game, fans stuck around to see hometown favorite Joey Dorsey finish out the game. Dorsey had 7 points, 12 rebounds, a steal and a block in 12 minutes.

Dunk of the Game
The real dunk of the game was Houston’s Chase Budinger, whose reverse slam with 3:34 left in the second quarter marked the beginning of the end for the Grizzlies. In fact Budinger’s jam was so intense that the crowd actually had a reaction. Runner up goes to Sam Young, for his jam with 9:21 left in the game. The crowd (and the team for that matter) started to wake up a little after that one, but then decided it was too much effort and went back to sleep.

Twitter Watch
Rudy Gay and DaMarre Carroll have updated their profile pages and want you to check them out. Here’s some other highlights from the players over the past 3 days.

Rudy Gay

I wish I was 15 and in Baltimore right now! This would be a great snow day

RT@K_Bogans10: @rudygay22 dude it’s a saturday…… cmon man( I forgot its sat,lol but the kids gonna be out for a while)

DeMarre Carroll

I’m not feeling good! About to fly out.

I wonder how this one would have been spoken with the exclamation mark.

Sam Young

3 strikes your out….

Final Shots
Houston’s uniforms last night featured yellow piping – making the team look like McDonald’s billboards. This was appropriate because, yet again, Ronald McDonald joined the player honored for Black History Month. The January highlight reel played in the first quarter was sponsored by Corey B. Trotz’s firm NST. After the game was out of reach the Grizzlies reverted to using the “Ballroom Blitz” for the Grizz Ball Blaster. They are 2-0 when using Great Balls of Fire as the Ball Blaster Theme song.

The Grizzlies play at Minnesota tonight at 7 pm. You can follow @douggillon or @cerrito for updates and insight during the games.

On the two year anniversary of the Pau Gasol trade that some called one of the most lopsided in NBA history, the Grizzlies defeated the trade’s “winners” on the back of the trade’s initial non-entity and moved back into playoff contention.

Despite the three to four thousand Faker fans, a 44-point night from Kobe and a two game losing streak, the Grizzlies once again adapted their game plan to the situation and took down another division leader. Thoughts, Twitter Watch, Dunk of the Game and more after the jump.

Gasol on Gasol
Two years ago Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace was maligned for trading Pau Gasol to the Lakers for what, as most at the time decided, was a whole lot of nothing. Part of that nothing? Pau’s brother Marc, now arguably one of the top 4 centers in the league in only his second season. Baby Gasol outscored, outblocked, outrebounded, and all-around outplayed his elder All-Star Brother in a bearded Spanish blood-duel that was the definite highlight of the night, with the possible exception of…

Yes, Kobe Broke the Damn Record
Kobe Bryant’s 44 points allowed him to pass Jerry West and become the top scorer in Laker’s history, but it didn’t matter now did it? The Grizzlies still won. Kobe didn’t look like he would break the record at the start, missing his first four attempts and first two free throws, but quickly turned that streak around in the second quarter and started drawing a lot of fouls to go with his points. In the second half Bryant scored more frequently but with fewer fouls as the team shifted their focus to stopping every other Laker scorer, and Kobe shifted his focus to winning the game. To bad for the MVP, it wasn’t enough.

Bizarro Bench
The minute we noticed Sam Young was out for the night (allergic reaction to mid-southerners cheering for a team from 1000 miles away for no good reason) the Grizzlies seemed doomed. He was the only bench player consistently scoring, and with the fatigue woes apparent in Saturday’s game against New Orleans, it seemed unlikely the Grizzlies could compete with Los Angeles’ bench. Trend was justified for about 5 minutes after the starters went out, when two different lineups featured only one starter and that starter (first Rudy, then Randolph) was the only one with any points. Then Lester Hudson happened.

Hudson drained two three pointers as part of his 11 second quarter points (13 for the game), leading a bench squad that actually expanded the lead. Even a rare Haddadi sighting produced two points as the Grizzlies' reserves outscored the Laker’s bench 21 – 14.

Rudy Blue No More
If Rudy Gay was in a funk because of his perceived all-star snub, consider it over. Gay led the Grizzlies in scoring with 25 points – and he did it while being guarded by Ron Artest, one of the best defenders in the league. Oh and that game losing miss by Artest? Credit that to Rudy as well. With the whole team focusing on Kobe to try the game winning three, Artest was left open in the corner for a clear shot, but Rudy Gay closed on him like lightning, forcing him to adjust the angle and push the shot far enough for a Grizzlies’ win.

Home Court Advantage
The faker fans tried their best to give LA some kind of edge, but in the end were a non-factor.

Although not all the Purple and Gold in the house was worn by Faker Fans.

Coach Lionel Hollins said the fans can cheer for whoever they want, but he hopes the Grizzlies won some of them over with the victory. Center Marc Gasol had a different take, saying he felt sorry for locals in purple and gold. Who knows, maybe all those Faker fans gave Gasol even more motivation than normal.

Be on the lookout for any fourth quarter timeout performance by the Beale Street Flippers. The flippers sometimes perform at halftime, but for this game and the Phoenix game, the flippers were a significant distraction for the opposing team, who can’t help but be enthralled by the Memphis acrobatics. Grizzlies get to strategize while the visitors are forced to idolize – and it’s working so far.

You Had to Be There
FedExForum’s second sellout of the season was significantly more intense than the first (MLK day vs. Phoenix) and the amount and volume of the Faker fans made the contest at times seem like a big High School game, with every play garnering significant positive and negative reactions from the crowd of over 18,000.

The big feeling wasn’t just coming from the fans though. O.J. Mayo was so intense he got himself a technical for arguing his third foul. The guy really wanted to guard Kobe, but forgot the unspoken NBA rule that looking #24 in the eyes is an automatic foul. Marc and Pau Gasol were going after each other under the basket, and often shooting glances at their parents, who were in attendance. Rudy Gay and Kobe Bryant were exchanging big three point attempts, the first before the half when Rudy made a desperation heave way too early, after which the Lakers quickly shot the ball back up Kobe in the corner, who drained one to give the Lakers a halftime lead. Later Rudy nailed a three-pointer to put the Grizzlies up 5 with 29.5 second left, followed by Kobe needing all of 4 seconds to put one down on the other side to cut the lead back to 2. With the score 90-88 and Zach Randolph shooting the first of two free throws to extend the lead, Marc Gasol couldn’t even watch - staring up at the rafters until the ball had fallen in.

Dunk of the Game

Bench Scoring: Photographic Evidence from JD Meredith.

Mizzou alum DaMarre Carroll. The junkyard dog had a sick two-fisted jam off a sick Jamaal Tinsely assist as part of the Bizarro Bench’s second quarter run. Perhaps this is the beginning of a trend. Rudy Gay’s rebound/dunk might have been cooler – but we have to give some love to the subs stepping up.
Dunk Count, 2: 1 Carroll, 1 Gay

Twitter Watch

Rudy Gay

O yea IM BACK!!!!

Sam Young

Great win… Now off to the next one…

DaMarre Carroll

Big Big Big Win tonight. Now off to Cleveland for our next game. Congrats to Kobe!

Hasheem Thabeet

Watchin the Grammy’s!!!!!

Granted this was a few days ago.

Final Shots
Former Memphis Tiger and Grizzlies minority owner Elliot Perry was honored as part of a black history month celebration. He was joined by the President of the Grizzlies, a local McDonald’s franchise owner, and Ronald McDonald. Another former Memphis Tiger and current New England Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski was in the house to kick a field goal on the floor to win free tater tots for the crowd. He missed both attempts but tots were given anyway. Z-Bo was given a technical for throwing his headband in an effort to communicate to Grizzlies play-by-play man Pete Pranica that things were not going well. The win put the Grizzlies back into playoff contention, at the eighth spot.

The Grizzlies play tonight at Cleveland in the second game of a back to back scheduled by a prankster at the league office. You can follow @douggillon and @cerrito for live updates and analysis from the games.