When Marc Gasol went down with a scary knee injury in late November, the Memphis Grizzlies were a modest 7-6 to begin the season.
Without their reigning Defensive Player of the Year, the Grizzlies were a subpar 10-13 and many around the league began to wonder if they would even make it back to the playoffs in the ultra-competitive Western Conference.
Gasol came back in mid-January, though, and the Grizzlies have ripped six wins in seven games. During that span, they beat Oklahoma City Thunder, Portland Trail Blazers and Houston Rockets twice to make a definitive statement: the Grizzlies are far from done, and they are not a team that anyone would want to face in the playoffs. That’s exactly what TNT analyst Steve Kerr had to say after seeing them soundly beat the Blazers 98-81.
I’m pretty sure nobody will want to play the Memphis Grizzlies come playoff time.
— Steve Kerr (@SteveKerrTNT) January 29, 2014
Memphis is just two games back from overtaking the Dallas Mavericks for the eighth seed and three games back from taking the sixth seed from the Phoenix Suns.
Although the return of Gasol has had plenty to do with their recent stretch of dominance, it’s also worth noting that the run really began when the team acquired Courtney Lee from the Boston Celtics to help stretch the floor and improve the offense – they are 8-2 since he became a regular rotation player. It’s also worth mentioning that they haven’t even had their best perimeter defender in Tony Allen, who has been out for the last 10 games due to a hand injury.
The Grizzlies are absolutely rolling right now, and their 23-20 record is nothing but a deception at this point. The top four teams in the West will have homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs, but will probably hope (privately, of course) to avoid the Grizzlies at all costs.
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James Park is the chief blogger of Sheridan Hoops. You can find him on twitter @SheridanBlog.
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