(Sports Network) - Two of the best teams in the Western Conference are
struggling a bit, but one will get on track Friday night when the Memphis
Grizzlies host the Golden State Warriors.
The Grizz have lost two in a row and are 1-2 with newly-acquired forwards
Tayshaun Prince and Ed Davis. They fell at home to the lowly Phoenix Suns on
Tuesday, then lost in Atlanta 103-92 on Wednesday.
Against the Hawks, Prince only managed six points and Davis tallied two in
just under 10 minutes of action. All-Star Zach Randolph led the way with 20,
while Marc Gasol, Mike Conley and Jerryd Bayless also scored in double
figures.
"We weren't playing our game," acknowledged Gasol. "They ran at us every time,
and they put a lot of pressure on the ball. It hurts even more to get beat at
your own game, and get outworked. Obviously, we're struggling a little bit
right now, but we're going to fight and figure it out."
Memphis has dropped three of its last four and in that span, allowed 95.3 ppg.
That's almost six points more per game than they average, and against Atlanta,
the Hawks shot 51.4 percent from the field and 41.7 from long range.
Due to some poor play on their own end, coupled with the Denver Nuggets'
surge, the Grizzlies have fallen to fifth in the Western Conference. Just
below them rank the Warriors, who have lost two in a row, both on the road,
after a four-game win streak.
Golden State started its four-game sojourn with a historically bad loss to the
Houston Rockets. On Tuesday, the Rockets matched an NBA record with 23 made 3-
pointers and the Warriors didn't take kindly to it. Mark Jackson instructed
his players to foul the Rockets so they couldn't tie the mark. Draymond Green
of Golden State got ejected after a little scrum, but the final score was
140-109.
The very next night, the Warriors traveled to Oklahoma City to face the
Thunder. Kevin Durant and company jumped on the Warriors by winning the first
quarter, 34-22, then taking the second, 33-27. The final ended up being
119-98.
"We didn't win and we didn't play particularly well," Jackson said after the
Thunder loss. "I thought we battled. I thought in spurts we played very good,
but overall what it takes to beat this team, especially in that building, is
48 minutes of solid basketball on both sides of the ball and we did not do
that."
David Lee (12 points, 11 rebounds) and Steph Curry (14 points, 11 assists) had
double-doubles for the Warriors and Klay Thompson and Harrison Barnes both
scored 19 apiece.
The Warriors allowed 64 points in the paint on Wednesday and committed 19
turnovers, including six from Curry, which led to 29 Thunder points.
The Warriors will finish off their road trip Saturday at Dallas and have lost
the first two meetings with Memphis this season. The Grizzlies are unbeaten in
eight straight matchups with Golden State, which has dropped seven in a row at
FedEx Forum.
The Sports Network