Memphis suddenly looked like the team we saw in December and January in a blowout win over the Boston Geriatrics, I mean Celtics. The Grizzlies held the Celtics to 12 points in the first quarter in rout to a 20 pt blowout win. For the first time all season the Grizzlies bench scored more than 30 pts in back to back games, Rudy Gay was huge all night just abusing Paul Pierce and the rest of the starters refused to back down to the Celtics intimidation tactics. Now the young Grizzlies need to guard against a let down against the Knicks.

New York comes to town smarting from a beatdown from the Spurs on Wednesday night. The 10 pt loss hides how close the game truly was for most of the night. If not for a superhuman effort from Manu Ginobili the outcome might have been different. Well that and a pathetic first quarter that saw the Knicks fall behind 31-22. San Antonio isn't exactly the easiest arena to come back from behind in. Honestly the Knicks are obviously looking toward the summer right now. They have reformatted their team to have the most available money this summer to try and entice a big name free agent to their team and having a high draft pick should only help in the recruitment process. This is game 2 of a tough 5 game road trip (remaining games include @ Dallas, @ Philly and @ Boston) so New York may be focusing on this game as one they can steal.

Position Breakdown:

  
Point Guards: Mike Conley vs Sergio Rodriquez 
Sergio is being given an opportunity to showcase his skills but the player the fans of New York want running the point next year is playing in Kentucky right now not New York. If the Knicks fail to land the Wall in the draft then they still have Sergio's restricted free agent status to keep him around for another year. As the Knicks starter Sergio is averaging 8.7 ppg, 4.1 apg and hitting 46.7% of his three point attempts. Mike Conley i splaying great since the all-star break. Just like he did last season after the all-star break. Too bad the all-star break comes so late in the season for Mike.
Advantage: Memphis

  
Shooting Guards: O J Mayo vs Tracy McGrady
Tracy McGrady is the poster boy for personal accomplishment but team failure. It's hard to believe that a player as talented as McGrady has been never won a single playoff series in his career and it isn't likely he'll be seeing one this season either. T-Mac is playing however which is surprising since Houston refused to allow him to play for them most of the year. O J Mayo shook off a terrible game against the Nets and a worse first quarter against the Celtics to have a great game shooting the ball and doing the little things that help teams win. An all-around player like McGrady (pts, rebs and assts) Mayo is entering the prime of his career with a team that seems destined to make some playoff noise in the future.
Advantage: Memphis

 
Small Forwards: Rudy Gay vs Wilson Chandler
Rudy Gay has made a strong argument for his being the team's closer. He's no the man. That honor goes to Zach Randolph this year but Rudy is the player you want taking the big shots. Rudy's floating runner in the lane at the end of the 1st quarter all but killed the Celtics last night on the way to a 28 pt game. Rudy has become more and more assertive in those situations lately and more importantly, he's succeeding when he gets the opportunity. Wilson Chandler is one of those players who hovers around breakout but never seems to get over the hump to become a consistent big time player. Chandler averages 15.2 ppg but that isn't a lot in New York's uptempo style of play. His 5.2 rpg is somewhat understandable since he's expected to get out and run instead of pounding the boards. 2 apg is nice and he is pretty efficient shooting. Still something appears missing in his game.
Advantage: Memphis

 
Power Forwards: Zach Randolph vs Danilo Gallinari
This should be interesting. Gallinari can shoot the ball along way from the basket. Randolph can overpower bigger and stronger players than Gallinari. Randolph might be a long shot for MVP in the league actually. Gallinari is a shooter. He can draw Zach out of the paint and drive past him, shoot over him and generally make Zach look bad on defense. Which Zach is so that isn't that surprising but can Gallinari avoid foul trouble against Randolph long enough to make an impact with his own offensive game? He couldn't last time and I doubt he will be able to do so this time either.
Advantage: Memphis

 
Centers: Marc Gasol vs David Lee
I know that Marc Gasol dominated David Lee in New York. I know Marc Gasol is playing some of the best basketball of his career right now. I know Gasol has a tremendous size advantage over Lee. So why do I get the feeling I should give Lee the advantage? Maybe because I haven't given the Knicks the advantage in any other part of the game. Maybe but David Lee can play too. Lee leads the Knicks in scoring and rebounding. He shoots 55% from the floor in doing that too. He's fast for a center and willing to mix things up at any time so Gasol's physicality won't throw him off his game. Lee is 14th in the NBA in scoring and 3rd in rebounding this year so while undersized he does have game. Of course Marc did dominate him earlier this season, is a lot bigger and can force his way on Lee at will and is playing excellent basketball right now so a repeat of the first game is quite possible.
Advantage: New York

  
Benches: Memphis vs New York
New York has their second best scorer coming off the bench. Al Harrington can score in bunches but lately he hasn't been having the big type of games like the Grizzlies saw in New York. after putting up back 68 pts in less than 24 hours at the end of February, Harrington has broken 20 pts only once this month and that was back 5 games ago. He hasn't scored more than 15 in the last 5 games. Eddie House is another Knick bench player capable of scoring in bunches but hasn't been doing that in the Big Apple. Chris Duhon, Toney Douglas and Bill Walker are interesting players but somehow they don't seem to gel together. Memphis' bench is playing their best basketball of the season lately and are anxious to have Ronnie Brewer join the lineup. Hasheem Thabeet played well in his first game action since the NBDL and Marcus Williams is playing extremely well too.
Advantage: Memphis

Other Commentary: 
Knickerblogger - An ESPN TrueHoop Network Blog
Beyond the Arc 
Grizzed by VanJulio 
Straight Out of Vancouver 
David Loves the Grizzlies
Grizzfans.com 

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