Grizzlies stun Suns on Jeff Green’s game-winning last-second alley-oop dunk
Well, this is a pretty sweet way to win a game:
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With just eight-tenths of a second remaining in the fourth quarter on Sunday afternoon, the Memphis Grizzlies had precious little time to break their 93-all tie with the visiting Phoenix Suns, so head coach Dave Joerger decided to take a shot at an inbounds play that would take as little game time as possible: a backdoor lob to the rim. The Grizz executed to perfection, with point guard Mike Conley catching just enough of Phoenix wing defender P.J. Tucker on his screen to free up Jeff Green, cutting from the near-side corner to the foul line before knifing down the lane to the cup.
With 6-foot-9 forward Cory Jefferson guarding inbounder Courtney Lee, 7-foot-1 center Alex Len literally hugging Memphis center Marc Gasol at the top of the key, lest he pop free for a bread-and-butter jumper he’s canning at a 48.4 percent clip this season, and athletic marvel guard Eric Bledsoe caught up in the wash of the Conley/Green cross-screen, the only Sun capable of stopping Green at the basket was former Grizzlies big man Jon Leuer, who recognized what was happening as Lee lofted his pass and disengaged from Zach Randolph to try to get home. The problem, though, is that while Tennessee Dirk can get up a little bit, he can’t get up like Uncle Jeff.
That truth, combined with Lee’s perfect pass and a heck of a catch-and-finish by Green, brought the FedExForum faithful to their feet and put the Grizzlies up 95-93 with what appeared to be no time remaining on the clock. Here’s what the play looked like from behind the Memphis bench, as captured by Grizzlies president of basketball operations Jason Wexler:
THIS HAPPENED!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/k5qQ4hxo46
— Jason Wexler (@MainStMemphis) December 6, 2015
I wonder if Joerger drew a little Matt Barnes on his whiteboard, standing next to Green out-of-bounds in the corner to create some confusion as to which player the Suns needed to guard off the whistle. Strategery!
Vince Carter was either supremely excited about the successful completion of the play or he had a “Roger Dorn-on-Rick Vaughn at the end of ‘Major League’“-type of score to settle with Lee after his on-the-mark inbounds lob:
Never forget that this is what winning feels like. pic.twitter.com/wzxp7cxujM
— Grizzly Bear Blues (@sbnGrizzlies) December 7, 2015
Either way, it’s kind of amazing that video review confirmed there were still five-tenths of a second on the game clock after Green’s dunk, meaning that Lee — sore face and all — had to join his teammates on the floor to try to nail down the W. They were able to do just that, as Bledsoe’s attempt at a catch-turn-and-fire came up empty, sealing a 95-93 win that left the Grindhouse grinning and the Suns — who scuttled their own chance at a winner when Brandon Knight dribbled the ball out of bounds in the final second — stunned, and on the business end of yet another close and late loss.
Such defeats were something of a calling card for last season’s model of the Suns, and thus far, it’s looking like that tendency toward late-game heartbreak has carried over. Phoenix is 1-8 in games decided by six points or fewer, and has been outscored by nearly 28 points per 100 possessions in games in which the score was within five points in the final five minutes, according to NBA.com’s “clutch” stats.
The continuing collapses keep undermining the Suns’ hopes of establishing themselves as a playoff team out West, and neither head coach Jeff Hornacek nor his players seem to have much in the way of answers for the bevy of bad beats, according to Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic:
“The fate of the Suns right now is just crazy,” Tucker said.
The Suns ran a play in which Eric Bledsoe came up from the baseline to set a high screen for Alex Len and then looked to pop to the inbound side to receive the inbound. But Matt Barnes came off Tucker inbounding the ball to deny the passing lane. The Suns did not use their remaining time outs and Tucker passed to Brandon Knight cutting the sideline near midcourt, an area where he would have had no better than a prayer shot.
It went worse than when Knight lobbed away a pass for Marcus Morris to steal in Detroit on Wednesday, when the Suns led by two and the Pistons needed to foul on the play. This time, Knight dribbled once and fumbled the ball out of bounds for the Suns’ 18th turnover.
“Bad play, that’s all I can really tell you,” Knight said. “We just have bad execution.” […]
“The guys are battling,” Suns coach Jeff Hornacek said. “Hopefully, they get over the hump here. I don’t know if we’re pressing at the end here. Tonight, I can’t blame it. How often does a ball get fumbled out of bounds and then the other team gets a lob and then we still get a lob all in the last two seconds. It was a crazy ending.”
And yet, it was one that the Grizzlies were prepared to pull out, as they told Ronald Tillery of the Memphis Commercial Appeal:
“You don’t like being in close games like that, but it’s always fun when you pull it out and get the win,” Green said. “Courtney was the quarterback. He had reads and made a play. That’s what it’s about — being a playmaker, and that’s what he is. He made a great play. I’m happy it was able to work out.”
Lee lobbed a perfect pass on the inbounds play.
“I told (Green) I was going to throw it to him if I saw (Suns forward) P.J. Tucker’s numbers,” Lee said. “And he went up and made a play.” […]
Joerger has never been shy about admitting that he’s a sponge. Remember last season when Lee scooped in a game-winning layup that beat Sacramento as the final buzzer sounded?
Joerger said then that he copied a play that now-New Orleans coach Alvin Gentry used against Memphis while Gentry coached Phoenix. This time, Joerger explained that he learned a thing or two under former Griz coaches.
“It got morphed between Lionel Hollins and Johnny Davis and then I tweaked it a little bit,” Joerger said about the final play. “It’s a tough situation because you don’t know exactly how much time is going to be because that is what we were waiting for, how much time they were going to put on the clock. Then it’s a little bit of an all-or-nothing play. And we were also out of timeouts.”
This time, it was “all,” propelling the Grizzlies to their ninth win in 12 games. After a disastrous start to the season that saw them suffer massive blowouts at the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors, Memphis now sits at 12-9, in fourth place in the Western Conference. They’ve had their missteps along the way — most notably against the San Antonio Spurs — but, for the most part, they’ve collected themselves admirably, ranking a respectable-enough 13th in net rating (whether you outscore your opponents in average over the course of 100 possessions, or vice versa) over their last 14 games, a span started by their close-and-late loss to the Los Angeles Clippers.
They’ve seemed to be energized by the addition of Mario Chalmers, another athletic shooter in the backcourt for a team perennially short on them. They’re starting to get a bit more of a spark from veteran wings Barnes (10.4 points, 5.1 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.1 steals per game over his last 10 games) and Lee (9.8 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game in his last 10, including a season-high 18 points on 7-for-12 shooting with six assists and four rebounds on Sunday). And Gasol (a team-high 22 points on 9-for-17 shooting, eight rebounds, two blocks in 36 1/2 minutes) has begun to come on of late, offering more flashes of the two-way play that made him the center on the All-NBA First Team last season.
The Grizzlies have questions to answer — namely, Joerger must figure out the best possible roles for Randolph and Tony Allen, the lifeblood veterans who have been the linchpins of the Grizzlies’ identity for the past half-decade but whose limitations (both as individual performers and in the broader sense of what their presence allows the Grizzlies to do schematically) seem to be growing more cumbersome — and a hard time finding a path to victory against the league’s top tier, but after a wobbly beginning to the 2015-16 campaign, they’re still proving to be a tough out for just about everyone else, one that requires the opposition to play a full 48 minutes (including that very last second) to avoid defeat.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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