Grizzlies come back from 24-point 2nd-half deficit to stun Warriors in OT
The Memphis Grizzlies gritted and ground their way to a jaw-dropping comeback Friday night, erasing a 24-point third-quarter deficit to topple the mighty Golden State Warriors in overtime.
The Warriors were in complete cruise control, having led the game wire to wire, and with a 19-point lead heading into the final frame, it looked like they might even get away with stealing a full quarter of rest for their starters. But their complacency played into the Grizzlies' hands, and with a combination of swarming defense and relentless gang rebounding, Memphis started to chip away.
As their lead was gradually whittled down, the Warriors' offense slowly devolved into a series of isolations, with Steph Curry and Kevin Durant taking turns trying to put Memphis away. At various points, it seemed they couldn't even agree whose turn it was.
That play @ThompsonScribe and @SherwoodStrauss pointed out. Watch Curry's body language on the handoff. pic.twitter.com/0EAXBWCru5
— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) January 7, 2017
Meanwhile, the Grizzlies hammered them on the glass, Zach Randolph feasted on the low block, Marc Gasol broke the defense down by pump-and-driving into space, Tony Allen bowled his way to the hoop and swallowed up everything in sight at the defensive end, and Mike Conley finally knotted things up with a clutch pull-up jumper in the dying seconds of regulation.
The Warriors' final possession went nowhere, they looked emotionally and physically spent in an overtime period they never expected to have to play, and they ultimately rolled over.
The Grizzlies took their first lead of the entire game in the extra frame. They finished the game on a preposterous 62-29 run to win 128-119, stealing one they had no business stealing by punching their opponent in the teeth.
All these years later, and Gasol, Conley, Randolph, and Allen are still doing what they've always done.
Even as the game has radically changed around them, as they've learned to adapt by playing faster and more open, as Conley and even Gasol have started raining threes, the Grizzlies have lived and died by Grit 'n' Grind.
On Friday night, it lived. And it was beautiful.