|
 So when Conley took a 29-foot shot as time expired in overtime,
with San Antonio leading by two points, Spurs point guard Tony
Parker held his breath.
"For sure," Parker said. "He was on fire tonight."
But Conley's shot glanced off the rim and the Spurs escaped with a
110-108 victory on Tuesday night at the FedExForum as guard Manu
Ginobili's driving layup with 1.8 seconds left in overtime held up.
In some ways, it was just another day at the office — and on the
road — for the team with the league's best road record at 14-3.
"We pride ourselves on that," said Spurs forward Tim Duncan, who
finished with 24 points and 17 rebounds. "They made some great plays
down the stretch. I thought there maybe a couple of fouls that were
missed, but such is basketball."
Guard Marco Belinelli had 19 points and forward Kawhi Leonard scored
17 for the Spurs (27-8).
Conley scored a season-high 30 points for Memphis (15-19). Power
forward Zach Randolph had 17 points and eight rebounds. Forward
James Johnson contributed 15 points and guard Courtney Lee, in his
first game since being acquired from Boston, scored 12.
The Spurs shot 51.8 percent from the field (43-for-83) and Memphis
hit 46.5 percent (46-for-99). The Grizzlies' record against
Southwest Division opponents fell to 0-9, with three of the losses
coming to the Spurs.
San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said the game switched from
physical to mental once the Grizzlies sent the game into overtime.
Ginobili and Conley traded layups in the last 3.6 seconds of
regulation. The Spurs had three turnovers in the last 1:49 of
regulation and a big swing came when Johnson stole the ball from
Belinelli and then hit a 3-pointer with 13 seconds left to tie the
score 96-96.
"It would be easy to go down after the lead and playing as sloppily
as we did at the end of the game," Popovich said. "So I thought the
most important thing was letting go and moving forward mentally."
The Spurs' largest lead came at 91-75 with 5:25 to play. From there,
the Grizzlies went on a 23-7 run.
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"We started playing free," Conley said. "Guys were doing less
thinking. We turned them over a few times, got up and down."
Conley only had 13 points through three quarters. That's when he
shifted gears.
"I saw I was gonna have to take more shots," said Conley, who
made 12 of 23 shots from the floor and was 3 of 5 from 3-point
range. "Zach was getting double-teamed all night."
Memphis coach Dave Joeger loved his team's late effort — "Our
guys played their hearts out," he said — but said they again
suffered from a lackluster start.
"We were just too slow in the first half," Joerger said. "That
attack mentality has to be there for us for more of the 48
minutes."
Neither team led by more than two points in overtime and the
Grizzlies were all too familiar with the running layup from
Ginobili.
"That's a play they execute very well," Joerger said. "In
overtime, we decided to switch everything and he turned the
corner against all three guys and against our best athlete
(forward Ed Davis), which is a guy you would love to have taking
him on. Manu just had six more inches that Ed didn't get to. Ed
made a good play on it and Ginobili just made a little better
play."
NOTES: Memphis completed a three-team trade that sent combo
guard Jerryd Bayless to Boston and brought SG Courtney Lee and a
2016 second-round draft pick from the Celtics to the Grizzlies.
As part of the deal, the Grizzlies also sent a 2014 second-round
draft pick and a conditional 2017 second-round pick to Oklahoma
City. The Thunder also sent forward Ryan Gomes to Boston. Lee
was averaging 7.4 points and shooting a career-best 44.2 percent
from 3-point range. "He's a guy that can shoot the three-ball, a
good defender, a good teammate, good IQ," Grizzlies coach Dave
Joerger said. ... Spurs C Tiago Splitter, who suffered a
sprained right shoulder in Saturday's victory over the Los
Angeles Clippers, missed Tuesday's game and is expected to be
out three to five weeks. ... Grizzlies SG Tony Allen sat out
Tuesday's game. He may have a small fracture in his hand and
could be sidelined for about two weeks.
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