Mike Conley led the Memphis Grizzlies to a 3-1 stranglehold lead in their series as the point guard scored 15 points to lift them to a 104-86 win over No. 1 seeded San Antonio Spurs. Conley, of Indiana, also had seven assists for the eighth seeded Grizzlies in Sunday’s game four of the best-of-seven first round series. Memphis can make franchise history Wednesday in San Antonio as they need one more win to post their first playoff series victory. “I know a lot of people didn’t expect us to be here,” Conley said.
“It’s not like we were expected to be up 3-1 at this point. In our locker room, we’re just playing it game by game. We want to come into San Antonio looking to end it there. We’re focussed and want to be able to move onto the next round.” In other Western Conference games Monday, Dirk Nowitzki scored 11 of his 25 points in the third quarter to lead the Dallas Mavericks to a 93-82 victory over Portland in game five of their playoff series and Ty Lawson scored 27 points as the Denver Nuggets avoided a sweep by winning game four over Oklahoma City Thunder 104-101.
The Grizzlies are also one victory away from becoming just the second eighth-seeded team to knock off a number one seed since the NBA expanded to a best-of-seven series format. “We’re not playing too well in so many words,” Spurs OJ Mayo said. “That’s the clean version. And we need to get it together, and play with a lot of energy and play like we’re a desperate team. All year he’s been preaching that the desperate team usually wins, and we didn’t look very desperate that first half.”
Darrell Arthur added 14 points off the bench for Memphis in game four. Tony Allen finished with 12, Zach Randolph and Mayo had 11 each. Tony Parker had a game-high 23 points but also committed seven turnovers for the Spurs. Manu Ginobili finished with 14 points while Tim Duncan was held to just a half dozen points and seven rebounds in the loss. Duncan was celebrating his 35th birthday. The Spurs came out quickly as they drained eight of their first 10 shots to lead 26-21 heading into the second quarter.
Parker scored eight of the first 10 points in the game. It marked the first time in the series San Antonio had outscored the Grizzlies in the opening quarter but it was downhill from there. Dallas’ Tyson Chandler finished with 14 points and a playoff career high 20 rebounds for the Mavericks who averted another late game collapse. Jason Kidd added 14 assists. “Coming out tonight, I knew my team would need me,” he said. “After a bad loss, a lot of times it can carry over. Tonight, I wanted to bring energy and hope my teammates would feed off it, and they did.”
In game four, Dallas led by as much as 23 in the third quarter before unravelling in the final quarter for the loss. Dallas has a 3-2 series lead and can close out the series with a win at Portland in game six on Thursday. In the history of the NBA, the team that wins game five after a 2-2 tie in games goes on to win the series 83 percent of the time.
