Memphis Grizzlies Fanatics

Hi guys, I don't have much of a basketball brain and don't follow much of any team in basketball however I would like to become a Memphis fan if you guys would kinda bring me up to date thanks.  GO TITANS THAT'S THE ONE TEAM I FOLLOW.

I'm not one to believe in luck too much, but I do believe in Curses.  If you look at the first word in my screen name you'll probably understand.  The Grizzlies have NEVER had the 1st overall pick despite being in the lottery in all but 3 years of their existence.  They have had the 2nd overall pick 3 times, but the last time we had that, we had to give it up to Detroit.
So all Grizz fans make sure and get all your lucky charms out before May 19th, cause folks we need them.  Memphis may have been a bit too good this year.  I know, that sounds stupid, but it's true.  Who would you rather have, Blake Griffin or Charlie Villanueva.  Nothing wrong with Villanueva, but he's not Blake Griffin.  We needs this, bad.  So lets make it happen.  Get your beads, or goats, or braclets, crosses, medalions, whatever and get to work.  We need all the help we can get.

 I've caught a lot of grief recently for proclaiming that Mike Conley is not the real deal due to his recent "burst" and our winning ways.  Let me be the first to say that Conley is hitting 3's at a pace I did not think he ever would.  It shows how hard he has worked on his jump shot and how hard he has worked on his game in general.  Additionally he is finishing stronger around the basket and his able to hit his floating jump shot with more regularity.  I believe this is due to his improved 3 point accuracy, which draws defenders out to him allowing him to go by them.  I also believe his best game this season was last Friday's butt kicking of Jason Kidd.  Now I know JK is getting long in the tooth, but still Conley obliterated him.

Having said all this I still think Conley has a long way to go.  This is due to the fact that I believe O.J.'s drop off has coincided with Conley's acent.  I have said this before, but Conley has scored more to the detriment of his teamates.

I was in Oklahoma City this past week and went to go see the Thunder play the Nuggets Tuesday night.  Great crowd and good game, but the thing that struck me was a sequence in the 3rd quarter when on 3 straight possesions Kevin Durant failed to see the ball.  I happend to be sitting about 11 rows back from the bench, and I can tell you that Thunder coach Scott Brooks called a timeout almost immediately.  While I can't tell you exactly what he said he made it know he wanted the ball to get to "BG".  In fact he used this term the entire game.  BG go here, Westy (Thunder point guard Mike Westbrook), get the ball to BG on the post, Etc.  Now BG, I was later told, is short for Big Guy.  Big Guy is Kevin Durant(number 5 scorer n the NBA).  Westbrook knows who BG is, Jeff Green (2nd leading scorer) knows who BG is, Sefalosha (newest member of the team) knows who BG is.  Everyone on the team knows who BG is and knows to get him the ball.  When Durant is in the game the ball goes through him.  Period.  If not there is hell to pay.

So I ask you who is Memphis' BG.  Rudy Gay, well he is the leading scorer.  O.J. Mayo, arguably the best player.  Mike Conley, PLEASE.  I say this is Lionel Hollins' job this offseason.  To find our BG and make sure everyone knows who it is.  The obvious question is if any of our players are capable of being the BG.  The honest to God true answer is, I don't know.  I know it's a lot to ask to have Rudy, O.J. and Conley all play well the same game. 

So here we are.  Rudy, O.J., Mike and Marc.  The Core.  Solid or not, we don't  know.  I know this, none of them has been anointed the BG and until then we don't know if Conley is for real or not.  Once one of them are, he better be able to feed him the ball and still get his.  Then we'll know.

If you read any of my posts you can easily ascertain that I am a lover of really bad obscure movies.  Most of them dating back to the 80's, but occasionally I find one from the 90's and early 2000's that is just so bad that I can't help but like it.  Thus I bring you "The Core" which is a terribly bad movie from 2002 about a government agency that is conduction secret undergound nuclear testing and accidentally stops the core of the earth from spinng, which is impossible based on Newtonian physics, but I digress.  Anyway, in this movie staring two time academy award winner Hilary Swank a group of scientist go to the core to start it spinning again.  Really stupid and totally inconceivable.  Right up my alley.

Well, that's what we have with the Grizzlies.  We have a core that is playing really well right now.  It's just spinning along.  The problem is it's April and playing well in April in the NBA is like playing well in September in the MLB.  If you're in contention then it shows you've got what it takes to make a serious run at this thing.  If you've won 18 games coming into the month of April, it just shows that other teams may be taking the night off against you, or have thrown in the towel themselves and their minds are on some golf course in Antigua.  Regardless, it doesn't mean as much as some might think.  See if you can play well in January, February and March, then April doesn't mean as much.  On the other hand if you suck in January, February, and March then all of a sudden start playing well in April it could just be the mirage you see from teams in baseball once the rosters expand.  Decent teams playing good teams taking a break before the playoffs, or bad teams counting down the days until the end of the season.  Either way, it's usually the decent teams that prosper in this time.

So, which is it.  Has Lionel finally found a way to get the core spinning again.  Cause it damn sure wasn't spinning in March.  I know we only had 4 home games and all that, but only winning 3 games in the month isn't cutting it.  February wasn't much better with 6 wins.  Now all of a sudden we are looking at 5 wins in April.

Here are the facts, Mike Conley is playing better and shooting better, but to the detriment of O.J. Mayo.  Rudy Gay has regained some confidence and is taking the ball right to the hole, and Gasol is playing like the center we've always needed.  So this thing appears to be headed in the right direction.  This April.  Next December and January, is another story.

So I don't know what the truth is.  I know for a fact we are a decent team, because finishing well is what decent teams do.  That just means we aren't as bad as our record, which is nice I suppose, but the reality is that we have to learn how to do it when other teams care.  Otherwise our core is just sitting there like a bid lump of coal.

The streak should have been over in 2005.  The Grizzlies were up by 2 with 2.5 seconds left.  Mike Bibby catches the in bound pass and banks in a three at the buzzer.  The streak lived, until last night.  Losing over 20 straight games of any kind to anyone is difficult to achieve.  The strange thing is that the Grizz have beaten the Lakers in LA, the Celtics in Boston, and the Cavaliers in Cleveland since the last time the Grizzlies won in Sacramento.  In fact a team from the city of Memphis had never won a game in Sacramento.  WOW.  It's not like the Kings have run a streak of NBA championships or anything.  That team has been dismantled and in rebuilding mode for a while now.  For all the people who snicker and say "the Grizzlies suck", they would always point to the losing streak to mediocre Sacramento as proof.

Well, blow that one out your behind.  The Grizz ended that last night, which by the way is not the longest such streak in the NBA.  The Warriors are boarding on 30 straight losses to San Antonio whenever the visit the Alamo.  The River Walk is neat, and you can get caught up in the night life, but Sacramento.  It's a beautiful city, but the night life will not be compared to some other cities.  Anyway, that streak is over, which ended at 23.  Now let's see where this thing goes.  We've got 18 wins in our pocket.  I'd like to get to 24, but 6 wins in 3 weeks might be a bit ambitious.  Hopefully we'll catch some teams napping at the end of the year.  Regardless, we won in Sacramento.  We might suck, but at least we put that Sacramento crap to bed last night.

Thanks so much for making our lives easier.