Grizzlies spoil Hollins’ Return
The Grizzlies improve to 39-13 with their 95-86 victory over the Brooklyn Nets. Lionell Hollins returned to the FedEx Forum with his new team to take on his old team. The game is the third of an eight game road trip for the Brooklyn Nets. This game marks the seventh consecutive home win for the Grizzlies.
The Grizzlies had six players in double figures. Zach Randolph led the way with 19 points and eight rebounds, including shooting 100% from three point territory. Courtney Lee came off the bench with 15 points, one rebound, three assists, two steals and one block. He did all of this in 26 minutes. Marc Gasol came through with his 15th double double of the season with 14 points, 11 rebounds, two assists, one steal and two blocks. Beno Udrih added 13 points, two rebounds, three assists, a steal and two blocks. Tony Allen has played his way back to the starting line up. He was a perfect 5-5 from the field. Tony Allen was a perfect 5-5 shooting including a three pointer. Tony finished with 12 points, five rebounds, four assists, two steals and one block. Green scored 11 points , grabbed three rebounds, dished out four assists, and blocked one shot. Mike Conley was limited to two points and four assists.
When asked about the game, Tony Allen had this to say:
“Like I said, today was one of those games. Obviously it was a little emotional with Coach Hollins coming in. The fans showed him a lot of love. It was just an emotional game. You want to beat them. After you get them to love you, you always want to beat them. But for the most part, today I thought we got over that and played Grizzlies basketball for the first half. I thought that in the second half, once we got the lead, we got a little complacent with it and we’ve just got to be better once we’ve got those leads like that. That team kind of made a run. We weathered the storm and got the win, but when you’ve got a team down like that you should just go ahead and put your foot on them, I believe. We’ll take the win though.”
The Grizzlies scored 21 points from 20 Brooklyn turnovers. The Grizzlies shot 44% from the field. That tenacious Grizzlies defense caused 20 nets turnovers. The Grizzlies had ten more assists (24-14). The Nets were outscored in the paint, 38-42.
The Grizzlies next game is Wednesday night in Oklahoma against the Thunder.