New-look Grizzlies silence Thunder

Posted: Thursday, May 16, 2013 7:00 pm

By JEFF LATZKE
AP Sports Writer
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Midway through the season, the Memphis Grizzlies came through Oklahoma City and left with questions swirling about the franchise’s future after leading scorer Rudy Gay was traded away in the club’s second big deal in just over a week.
Months later, the Grizzlies left town with a far different feeling.
Memphis is headed to the Western Conference finals for the first time in franchise history after beating the Oklahoma City Thunder 88-84 on Wednesday night, finishing off the second-round series in five games.
Not bad for a team that seemed to be slashing salary in a bid to stay competitive for years to come.
“We were struggling that day, obviously,” said point guard Mike Conley, who had 13 points and 11 assists in Game 5. “We thought we lost a family member in Rudy here in Oklahoma City. We played the game with seven players and got blown out.
“Somehow we pulled it together, we trusted each other, we just played as hard as we could and now we’re one step closer to getting where we want to go.”
There have been some giant leaps in the past four years.
Back in 2009, the Grizzlies were finishing off a miserable three-year run — twice winning 22 games and then 24 — before hiring Lionel Hollins as coach.
Before 2011, the team had never even won a playoff game.
And before this current run, it only won one playoff series.
But there’s no sense of satisfaction for just making it this far.
“We’re trying to do something really special. We want to go as far as we can go,” Hollins said.
The West finals will start no earlier than Sunday, and Hollins said players would have the day off today before returning Friday to work toward making even more history.
“This is the first time, so it definitely means a lot. I’m happy, but we’ve still got work to do,” said All-Star power forward Zach Randolph, who had 28 points and 14 rebounds in the clincher. “I want to win a ring.”
It hasn’t been easy getting this far.
The Grizzlies rebounded from the emotional blow of losing Gay and reserves Marreese Speights, Wayne Ellington, Josh Selby and Hamed Haddadi to earn the fifth seed in the West, then fell behind the Los Angeles Clippers 2-0 in the first round of the playoffs.
Memphis reeled off four straight wins to advance, then did it again after losing Game 1 to the Thunder.
It was a series filled with games that went down to the wire, and the finale fit right in — even though the Thunder trailed by 12 with 3 minutes left.
Oklahoma City came back with a 16-6 rally, and Reggie Jackson’s 3-pointer cut the deficit to 86-84 with 14.3 seconds remaining.
Randolph missed two free throws with 11.3 seconds on the clock to give the Thunder one last chance to save their season.
Durant got the ball beyond the 3-point line on the left wing and navigated around Tony Allen before missing a 16-foot jumper with six seconds left.

Published in The Messenger 5.16.13