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Film Study: How Conley and the Grizzlies floated one past the Pelicans

Derick E. Hingle / USA TODAY Sports

With three quarters of the season complete, good teams starting to make their playoff pushes and bad teams starting to lose hope and much of their fight, you can really start to notice the difference between how quality teams execute down the stretch and poor teams simply fail to execute.

Case in point, the Grizzlies entered Wednesday night's action winners of three straight and surging up the Western Conference standings, but they were also on the back end of a back-to-back, on the road in New Orleans and down seven with just over three minutes to go.

After the Grizzlies tied the game, each team had one timeout and one full possession remaining with just under 30 seconds to go. This is how Monty Williams and the Pelicans used their final timeout and full possession:

Courtesy NBA.com/stats boxscore video

And this is how Dave Joerger and the Grizzlies used theirs:

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Memphis ran a staggered pick-and-roll to free up Conley, but let's dig into how exactly this game-winning play unfolded.

Mike Miller comes up to set the first screen on Austin Rivers, who is guarding Conley on the perimeter. Al-Farouq Aminu follows Miller, and while this is happening, you can begin to see Marc Gasol, covered by Greg Stiemsma, creeping up to set the second screen:

On the original Miller screen, Rivers and Aminu switch covers, so that Aminu is now chasing Conley while Rivers ends up on Miller:

Rivers being forced to guard the much bigger Miller, who can easily shoot over him, is a concern, but Aminu is a solid perimeter defender and the Pelicans are still in okay shape here with him guarding Conley.

Where the breakdown happens is on the second screen. Aminu gets stuck on the usually dependable Gasol pick, and Stiemsma leaves just enough room between himself and Gasol for Conley to squeak through:

Any big would have trouble containing a Conley drive, and Stiemsma clearly thought Conley was going to take a wider turn, because he starts to move left to cut off the sideline before Conley has even reached the screen, leaving a hole large enough for the Grizzlies point guard to get through without any resistance. It's a nifty split by Conley, but just as egregious a defensive play by Stiemsma.

You'll also notice Rivers is quite hesitant to give too much help onto the Conley drive, likely fearing that the ball would then end up in Miller's hands for an open three.

From there, Anthony Davis makes a great effort at denying Conley, but it's too late, as the smooth guard floats the winner above The Brow's freakish arms:

The Pelicans managed a wild shot attempt to end the game, but that was that. The Grizzlies outscored them 9-0 over the final 3:11 to win their fourth straight game and strengthen their grip on a Western Conference playoff spot, moving within two games of sixth-place Golden State and 3.5 games of fifth-place Portland.

New Orleans, meanwhile, fell to 26-38 and remained just 4.5 games ahead of the all-important fifth-worst record in the league. Remember, the Pelicans' traded first round pick (to Philly) is top-five protected, so they still have a shot at retaining it with a little more of this kind of late game 'execution.'

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