I've watched that miserable team the last few weeks and its shocking but they play decent defense now. Last night in the 4th and OT they made Westbrook and Durant look like outlaw and mills. This was in okc too. It's become clear the graze aren't going away. I thought they would fade but they keep winning. What's crazy is they beat okc without gay. Not to mention mayo is out. I think we better hope melo is dealt. The grizz looked like a playoff team with their defense last night. And we all know how they can score. My only question is how did this happen when you have 2 horrible defenders in gay Randolph?
At the same time, many of the guys who don't play normal minutes when Gay and Mayo were playing are known to be good defenders. Allen is all about defense. Also I thought the game last night OKC executed horribly down the stretch. I bet everybody was really happy when down the stretch Serge Ibaka launched a 3.
omg for all the ibaka lovers (and theres tons) he got destroyed by zach. wasnt close. and durant/westbrook looked like college kids who were panicking in a tight ncaa tourney game forcing insane shots. it was like everyone cleared out for them. where have we seen that before?
I think that they took Memphis lightly with the players out, and got their teeth kicked in. That's what happens in the NBA. Somebody goes down, means a lot of the time that somebody else, finally gets their opportunity to show their stuff.
Repped. It's always amazes me, but sometimes the best thing for a team that will likely lose is to have one other their major contributors go out. It's not just the extra energy that their replacement brings, but it messes with the opposition's ability to scout your team. It happened with us last year. Specifically, I'm thinking about the Spurs, when Bayless dropped 31 on them. We shouldn't have won that game, but they had no idea how to defend us and couldn't take advantage of us when we were on defense.
The Memphis win last night over the Thunder knocked us down from 8th place to 9th, as predicted by CoolStandings ...although it's so close, it keeps alternating.
Zach's unstoppable offense is the hub that the Teddy Bears' defense rolls on. When every team in the league has to double and triple-team him all night, it leaves them little energy with which to mount an offense.
Sounds like a team on the rise. Don't they have message board you can join and never come back here forever?
Tony Allen has completely transformed this team with his defensive intensity and championship pedigree. I think Grizz and Blazers both get in playoffs. Utah going to the lotto this year.
Seriously though, I'm happy a team that has sucked forever is looking like they might actually turn into a decent team. They could use a new city though. Seattle?