San Antonio Spurs on the verge of collapse – National Basketball Association Playoff update
Antonio McDyess and Manu Ginobili could do nothing to prevent the San Antonio Spurs from their second straight loss against the Memphis Grizzlies. The Grizzlies routed the Spurs 104-86 in Game 4 on Monday night at FedEx Forum, Memphis.
With this win the Grizzlies raced to their third victory in the best of seven game series. They are now leading the series 3-1. The Grizzlies are just a game away from becoming the second eighth seeded team in the history of the league, after Golden State
Warriors, to defeat a Number One seed. If the Spurs fail to make a comeback in Game 5, then they will be the second team after the Dallas Mavericks to have stumbled to such an extent in the post-season.
The Mavericks lost their first-round series four years ago as a Number One seed. They dropped six games in that series against the Warriors.
This season the Spurs are going through the same dilemma and there are a lot of similarities between the two series. The Mavs were also 1-3 in that series and they won Game 5 in dramatic fashion but eventually lost Game 6 in a blow-out.
Though the Mavs were the best team in the league, they got a bad matchup, just like the Spurs. Golden State’s young attack exploited the few weakness Dallas had and threw them out of contention. Now the young and athletic Grizzlies are also doing the same
thing to the Spurs.
Despite the Spurs holding the best win record after the Chicago Bulls during this season, they failed to find momentum against the Grizzlies, who looked weaker on paper in comparison. The Spurs struggled because they were lacking a solid inside defence and
also a capable big man overall. Lamentably, these are the biggest strengths of the Grizzlies. San Antonio’s best players are struggling against the Grizzlies tough defence.
The Spurs were leading the Grizzlies in Game 4 by the end of the first half 50-48, but they blew the lead as the Grizzlies rattled them with a 30-15 run in the third quarter and converted the first-half deficit into a 104-86 rout.
After the embarrassing loss, Spurs guard Tony Parker said, "Obviously, the whole team is very frustrated. I mean we go through a whole season and get that first seed, and now we're just one game away to be eliminated so it's most important for us to focus
on Game 5. That's the most important thing to get Game 5 and try to get another chance to get a win here."
This loss has pushed the Spurs deeper into a dark hole and now they are looking completely down and out. In this condition it’s going to be really tough for them to stop the Grizzlies from taking the series away from them.
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