<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Shane Battier, it has been said before and will be said again, is the NBA's poster child for guys who do all the little things that don't show up in the box score. "Half the time," said the Grizzlies' Eddie Jones, "little things don't get recorded." On Tuesday night, big things got recorded because Battier just couldn't help himself. In the Grizzlies' 94-69 win over Seattle at FedExForum, Battier filled up the box score and also made two strong moves on the franchise's all-time list for scoring and steals. With his 20 points -- tied with Pau Gasol for game-high -- Battier reached 3,395 career points and moved into fourth-place on the Grizzlies' career scoring list, leaping over Jason Williams (3,379). With his one steal Tuesday, Battier nudged ahead of Shareef Abdur-Rahim for first place on the Grizzlies' all-time list with 417. "That's pretty cool," Battier said. So was the 6-8 Battier's complete line Tuesday night: 20 points on 9-of-10 shooting, 1-for-1 from 3-point range, three assists, one steal and one turnover in 35 minutes. Thirteen of those points came in the third quarter, when Gasol scored 10, and the Grizzlies blew the game open and took a 68-51 lead into the fourth. With Battier and Gasol scoring 23 of the team's 27 third-quarter points it felt a little like their first year here when Gasol was NBA Rookie of the Year and they were the glue and the glitter of the Grizzlies. But as Gasol pointed out, there's one big difference between then and now. "Winning," Gasol said with a little laugh. "We might have gotten it going that first year together, but we were down 20 every game." On Tuesday, they played important parts in a convincing win that has the Grizzlies off to a 3-1 start and on a three-game winning streak. For a while, Battier was having the kind of night that makes broadcasters babble about not being able to stop, only hoping to contain. "There was one stretch where it was just all about Shane," said Grizzlies coach Mike Fratello. "Everybody was finding him." And so afterward, you could hardly blame Battier for having a flashback to his Duke days, to a game when he scored the team's first 14 points and Duke led Michigan, 14-10. The Cameron Crazies, he recalled, began shouting, Shane is winning, Shane is winning. </div> Source
Behind Pau, Shane is the most important player on our roster. His fundamentals, professionalism and work ethic are second to none. He really is the glue on this team and it's great to see Czar respecting that by making him the guy (with Pau) to be on the floor almost all night long.
