Number One seed San Antonio Spurs try to beat lowly Memphis Grizzlies: NBA Playoff Update
The San Antonio Spurs will meet the Memphis Grizzlies in Game 4 on Monday night at the FedEx Forum, Memphis. The Grizzlies are leading the best of seven game series by 2-1. All three games were very close but Game 1 and 2 went down to the wire and the Spurs
lost both by a small margin of three points.
If the Grizzlies were able to knock out the Spurs in Game 4, then it’ll be the fourth time in the history of league that a eighth seeded team has beaten a Number 1 seed.
The Spurs are trying to gather themselves for the fourth and crucial game in order to avoid a first-round exit. However, at the moment they are struggling to finalise their line-up, as Antonio McDyess is suffering from a strained neck injury. He injured
his neck in the Spurs last loss to the Grizzlies.
McDyess left the game with just 2:56 minutes left and he was immediately taken to the hospital where his X-Rays came back negative. After a nights rest and medication he was looking better during Sunday’s practice session. After going through the drills
with the team he commented that he is ready for Monday night.
Another question mark is Manu Ginobili, who has an injured elbow and he seems to be struggling with it. He suffered the injury in the last regular-season game in a loss to the Phoenix Suns. Nevertheless, San Antonio are still hopeful that their star players
will be available for Monday night’s game.
Besides the injury factor, there is also history. The Spurs have never secured a series that they started from home-court only to lose two games out of three, since the inclusion of centre Tim Duncan. Duncan said that the strategy will remain the same as
the Spurs trail 2-1.
Duncan commented on the teams approach and said, "We've got to get a lot better at executing our game plan and being more consistent. We've made a lot of mental mistakes. A lot of the things we saw on the film are easily fixable if we go out there with a
little better focus."
The Spurs also need to improve their communication on the court. The National Basketball Association’s (NBA) top three-point shooting team has to regain their regular-season shooting form as they went just 2 of 15 in the last game. In spite of all the mistakes,
one advantage that the Spurs have over Memphis is that they out-rebounded them well and the Spurs Coach, Greg Popovich, believes that this factor is going to be a key in the up-coming games.
Popovich said, "I'm thrilled with and surprised with, but it was our goal. But we didn't expect to be shooting this poorly. And they deserve some credit for that. Their closeouts have been great. They've packed it in and done a really good job defensively."
If the Spurs are able to tweak their game-plan in time for Game 4 and if McDyess and Ginobili make it into the side on Monday, then they have a chance to tie the series 2-2 and maybe even win it.
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