NBA Match Preview: Memphis Grizzlies vs. San Antonio Spurs
In their first of four meetings this season, Memphis Grizzlies visit San Antonio to play the Spurs at the AT&T Center on Saturday night.
Topping the Western Conference standings with an impressive win-loss mark of 22-3, the Spurs are currently enjoying a six-game winning streak at home. Hosting the Grizzlies tonight, the Spurs look to extend this winning streak.
Earlier in the season, the Spurs enjoyed another winning streak of six games at home; however, their season’s longest winning streak came in November when they won twelve straight games.
Playing their last game of the week, the Spurs currently register a 2-0 win-loss mark for the season. Their last win came on Thursday when the Spurs visited Denver to play the Nuggets. Their win over the Nuggets came courtesy of
their shooting guard Manu Ginobili. Although the Spurs were hesitant of signing on an extension with Ginobili in the beginning of the season, their investment in the Argentinean has been nothing but fruitful.
Taking a charger from Carmelo Anthony as time expired, Ginobili led the Spurs to a one point win over the Nuggets. The scoreboard showed a close 113-112. On Wednesday, the Spurs hosted the Milwaukee Bucks. Scoring as the buzzer
rang, Ginobili helped Spurs secure a 92-90 win over the Nuggets. Ginobili is averaging a career high of 20.0 points per game this season.
Talking about Ginobili, Spurs’ coach Gregg Popovich said, "He's a stud. He's been a competitor, he's won championships here and overseas and he's been MVPs of things. He scored the two free throws down the stretch, then he scored
the winning bucket and then he took the charge. That pretty much says it all about what he's capable of doing."
Although the Grizzlies are barely making the playoffs with their current standing (12-15), they recently enjoyed a four-game winning streak which unfortunately came to an end in their latest match on Friday.
Standing at a 2-1 win-loss mark, the Grizzlies are playing their last match of the week tonight.
Although the Grizzlies enjoyed a four-game winning streak after defeating the Portland Trail Blazers (86-73) on Monday and then the Charlotte Bobcats (113-80) on Wednesday, they met with loss on Friday when they hosted the Houston
Rockets.
An immaturity on the Grizzlies part earned them their worst performance yet. Leading scorer Rudy g*y got suspended after knocking down Rockets’ forward Luis Scola and getting ejected from the game. Scoring only 33 points in the
first half, the Grizzlies lost the game 87-103.
g*y will miss tonight’s game on account of suspension. Averaging 21.0 points this season, g*y’s absence will surely hurt the Grizzlies’ already damaged chances against the Spurs. Talking about his fault, g*y said, "I kind of let
my anger get the best of me, and it's not characteristic of me or anybody else on this team. Me, as a leader, I probably shouldn't have done that."
Enjoying a 13-2 at home, the Spurs are not only enjoying the home court advantage but also the statistical advantage of leading the Grizzlies 23-6 at the AT&T Center. Favourites to win tonight, Spurs will probably end up leading
the season head-to-head by 1-0. Will the Grizzlies surely lose or not, that, however, remains to be seen.
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