NBA Preview: Memphis Grizzlies will meet the Sacramento Kings on Friday night
The Memphis Grizzlies will meet the Sacramento Kings on Friday night at FedEx Forum, Memphis. The 8th seeded Grizzlies have won 44 games and lost 34 in this season. While the Kings are sitting at the 14th
spot in the Western Conference, and so far they have won 23 games and lost 55. Grizzlies don’t possess a good road record but they surely play well at home, as their record reflects 28 wins and 11 losses at home. Whereas the Kings hold poor records both at
home and away, their road record shows 12 wins and 27 losses. The records reveal that Grizzlies are favourites in this contest.
As there is just one playoff spot remaining in the West, the Grizzlies are eyeing on it and they only need to defeat the visiting Kings, so they can confirm their seat in the playoffs and put a full stop to their four year postseason
dearth.
As the Grizzlies, are on the verge of making into the playoffs, point guard Mike Conley expressed his feelings as, "I'm very happy. Not satisfied, but it's a great feeling to be in the position we're in right now,"
The Grizzlies lost their last game to the 13th seeded Los Angeles Clippers by 82-81 on Tuesday. The Grizzlies got more help from the ninth-place Houston Rockets in maintaining their current spot, who lost two games in
a row. The Grizzlies are three and a half games in front of the Rockets. This means that the only way Memphis can loose the playoffs race is by losing their outstanding four games whereas Houston wins its last three.
The Grizzlies have a good opportunity to end the regular season at the sixth spot in the West, but they should play better than the last game. As they lost to a sub-.500 team for the first time during this year, since declining
to the New Jersey Nets on December 21.
Forward Zach Randolph said, "It was a tough game all around. I don't think we came out ready. (We) came out taking this team too lightly. Let them stick around in the game. And you see what happened."
Memphis doesn’t want to repeat the same mistake against the Kings, who owns the second worst record of the West.
Prior meeting the No. 1 team of the West, San Antonio Spurs, Sacramento won two straight games and six out of their last eight. Though the Kings led for a short while against the Spurs in the second half but they gave away too
many points (41 points in the third quarter) en route to a 124-92 defeat.
After the defeat coach Paul Westphal said, "We got beat by a great team, did some good things, learned from the bad things. We showed that we can defend. We got good shots, didn't always make them, but that's basketball. In the
third quarter, the roof fell in, but that doesn't mean everything was bad."
In their last meeting, on February, 26 the Grizzlies outscored the Kings 33-17 in the third quarter. Memphis won that game 120-92. Sacramento’s key player Tyreke Evans skipped that game because of injury. Evans now looks fully
recovered from his injury. That is a good sign for the Kings, because in his last three games against the Grizzlies Evans scored with an average of 26.3 points.
On the other hand, Randolph was the key, who aided Memphis win over the Kings in two games out of three meetings during this season. Zach is averaging 26 points and 13.3 rebounds. The Kings won their single game on December 29
at Sacramento when Evans made a whooshing buzzer beater from the three point range and spoiled Zach's season-high, 35 point performance. So far the Grizzlies have won 10 games against the Kings at home out of 13.
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