Memphis Grizzlies Coach Lionel Hollins warns his team against overconfidence
The Memphis Grizzlies have been on a roll this post season. After knocking down the San Antonio Spurs in the first round, the Grizzlies are giving the Oklahoma City Thunder a run for their money in the Western Conference semi-finals.
In the game-3, the Grizzlies overcame a 16-point deficit, late in the third quarter and roughed up the Thunder 101-93 in overtime, to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.
However, to avoid overconfidence creeping into his resurgent team, Coach Lionel Hollins decided to be innovative and showed the highlights of the game-3 to his team, stressing on what went wrong in the starting three periods, rather
than their heroics down the stretch.
Memphis prolific guard Tony Allen thought that they were going to see clips for the things they did right in the defining moments of the game, but the coach wanted them to learn from their mistakes and pointed out the deficiencies.
"It was the other way around. We saw a lot of film where we did things wrong, and I think that right there only just gives us fuel to the fire to come out this next game and ready to play." Allen said.
According to Hollins, the team relaxed on the defensive plays, which they used outstandingly in the first round to thrash the top seed San Antonio Spurs out of the play-offs. The Grizzlies eventually primed their defences in the
fourth quarter and struck back to outshine the streaking Thunder.
"We finally got back to the effort that's needed, the commitment and focus that's needed, and we raised our level of play," Hollins said.
On the other hand, Oklahoma City coach Scott Brooks carried the same approach with his team and highlighted their sloppy offensive plays down the stretch. Scott spent nearly an hour scrutinizing the crucial minutes, where the Thunder
choked up their solid grip on the game
Oklahoma City scored only 10 points in the final 12 minutes on 4-of-18 shooting. The leading scorer Kevin Durant land was successful only 2 times out of 7 whereas Russell Westbrook landed only one of his six attempts and also committed
three turnovers.
The veteran coach Brooks was quite upset with the performance down the stretch and said after the game. "It wasn't all Russell. It was some, so he's a part of it. It was Kevin, it was guys that were out there including myself.
We have to do a better job making sure we're all running every set, every offensive play with great energy."
The game-4 is being played at FedEx Forum and it will be interesting to see how will the Grizzlies react to Hollins’ approach to keep up with the defensive strategy and what line of attack is adopted by the Thunder down the stretch.
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