MVN - Most Valuable Network

Grizzlies Fall to T-Wolves in Home Finale

The Grizzlies fell tonight in their final home game 114-105, which sends them back into within a game of the T-Wolves for the third worst record in the league.  Tonight they were without regulars Mike Miller (back spasms) and Javaris Crittenton (sprained right thumb), who both sat last night, and Darko Milicic (shoulder). Miller and Milicic have both battled these injuries all season and resting them these last two nights kind of shows how the Grizzlies want to get a good a draft position as possible. Now last night it didn’t help against the league-worst Heat, but that sitting Milicic and starting Brown put it over the top to a T-Wolves team that has improved all season.

Don’t get me wrong, Brown had a very productive night (13 points, 18 rebounds) after his stellar 4 point, 11 rebound performance last night, in fact he did better than Darko has done all season but the fact that you’re sitting two starters in your home finale really isn’t a good thing in my opinion. These fans have paid hard-earned money all season and the least you can do is give them a full roster and better chance to win in the final home game of the year against a team that you very well could beat.

Instead, the Grizzlies trailed much of the night after giving up 43 first quarter points and falling behind by 18 points. The closest they would get would be six points late in the second quarter and even though they would cut the lead to eight points at the half, would never seriously threaten for the rest of the game.

The fans that did come out, all 14,873 (announced attendance) of them (including three very enthusiastic autograph seekers who caused a railing to collapse), did get to see the best performance of rookie Mike Conley’s career. Conley led the Grizzlies with a season-high 25 points to go along with 5 assists and no turnovers. Rudy Gay added 22 points and 7 rebounds, even though he again struggled, shooting 9-of-20 from the field and having 3 of the team’s 7 turnovers. Hakim Warrick added 16 points and 7 rebounds, with Kyle Lowry adding 10 points and 5 assists off the bench. This to go along with Brown’s performance, with Brown’s making his case to return to the Grizzlies next season.

But it wasn’t enough for the Grizzlies to overcome the hot start by the T-Wolves, as the very under-rated Rashad McCants led the way for Minnesota with 23 points. Kirk Snyder added 22 points and 11 rebounds, while Al Jefferson added 22 points and 10 rebounds, to go along with Randy Foye’s 16 points and 6 assists.

Going back to McCants, he has really come into his own this season, as he is their second leading scorer, yet continues to come off the bench and constantly be in coach Randy Wittman’s doghouse.

He is really the slashing 2/3 guard that the Grizzlies need and if I were GM Chris Wallace I would try to pry away McCants from the T-Wolves anyway I could, offering a package centering around Kyle Lowry. I mean Wallace did come from Boston so maybe he knows the secret hypnotic trick it takes to enduce Kevin McHale to do any trade. If he doesn’t, honestly, I would even offer a package of Memphis’ 2008 1st round pick and Lowry/Crittenton, as I think McCants has as much potential as either Eric Gordon, O.J. Mayo, or any other 2/3 combo player available in the draft and he is much more polished.

But that’s just my opinion, and I’m starting to think about the draft and how to improve this team for next year, as mercifully only two players remain in this season, back-to-back games no less, starting with Tuesday night at Portland and finishing Wednesday night at Denver. The finale could be of some importance, as if the Nuggets lost their final two games and the Warriors won their final two games against the Suns and Supersonics and the Nuggets lost their final two against the Rockets and Grizzlies it would put the Warriors into the playoffs and the Nuggets out, labeling them as chokers. Now all that is a big if, especially the Grizzlies win, as they play the second-half of a back-to-back while the Nuggets would be rested since Sunday.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 12th, 2008 at 9:50 pm and is filed under Grizzlies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.