Grizzlies Reach Dizzy Heights

The Memphis Grizzlies are on top of the NBA for the first time in the franchise's 17-year history, and they showed why Saturday night.

Mike Conley scored 20 points and the Grizzlies beat the Charlotte Bobcats 94-87 for their eighth consecutive victory.

Zach Randolph added 18 points and 12 rebounds, and three other players scored in double figures for the Grizzlies, who own the league's best record at 8-1. Rudy Gay had 16 points and Marc Gasol and Tony Allen scored 12 apiece.

"I think these last two games have really distinguished what kind of personality this team has right now," Conley said. "We're really playing together as a team."

Byron Mullens scored 18 points and Kemba Walker added 17 for the Bobcats, who cut the Grizzlies' lead to five points three times in the final period, the last at 92-87 on Bismack Biyombo's dunk with 13 seconds remaining.

Charlotte had won three straight.

"You have to give them credit -- they are a very good team and their record shows it," Mullens said.

In its last three games, Memphis has double-digit wins over the defending NBA championMiami Heat, the Oklahoma City Thunder, last year's Western Conference champs; and theNew York Knicks, formerly the league's only undefeated team.

Saturday's game was particularly tough on Memphis, which had a late finish to its nationally televised game against the Knicks on Friday night. The Grizzlies' flight didn't arrive in Charlotte until early Saturday morning.

"We had a tough game last night, and then to get in here at four in the morning and battle a young, pesky team that's improving is a testament to our mental toughness," Memphis coach Lionel Hollings said.

"We've been playing extremely well and defending as a team. That was the key to us winning tonight. We were tired out there, but we got the win. We passed and we defended."

The pesky Bobcats committed 18 turnovers and shot 37.6 percent from the field, but managed to battle back from a 17-point deficit and give Memphis problems down the stretch.

The Grizzlies increased a nine-point halftime lead to 77-60 on Randolph's layup with 10:52 remaining in the fourth quarter. But Walker scored 11 consecutive points over the next 3 1/2 minutes to get the Bobcats back in the game. His layup with 6:54 left got Charlotte within six at 77-71.

"When we are down, we are not going to put our heads down," said Walker, who also had eight assists. "We are going to try our best to close the game out and try to keep pushing. We don't want to give up."

Despite their own shooting problems -- 38.8 percent from the field -- the Grizzlies ran the lead back out to double digits again, with Quincy Pondexter's layup with 2:39 left making it 88-77. But Ramon Sessions converted a pair of layups and rookie Michael Kidd-Gilchrist followed with a basket to cut Memphis' lead to 88-83 with 47 seconds remaining.

Charlotte pulled within five points twice more in the final 30 seconds, but couldn't complete the comeback.

Memphis opened a 47-31 lead on Allen's jumper with 1:02 left in the second quarter. The Bobcats then closed out the first half with a 7-0 run. Mullens had a three-point play, Ben Gordon drove for a layup off a steal and Walker hit a pair of free throws.

Charlotte had a chance to extend the second-quarter run but Mullens missed a long 3-pointer off a steal at the buzzer.

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Clippers Survive Grizzlies Attack

Kenyon Martin scored seven of his 11 points in the fourth quarter, and the Los Angeles Clippers advanced to the Western Conference semifinals with an 82-72 win over the Memphis Grizzlies in Game 7 on Sunday.

"That's why it's seven games," Martin said. "If you don't do it before, you get another chance. So they did what they had to do, they came and stole home court back on our floor. ... We had a chance to close it out. We knew we let it go, an opportunity get away."

The Clippers blew an eight-point lead in the fourth quarter Friday night. So Martin huddled the Clippers together at the start of the fourth quarter Sunday, and the veteran led the bench in outscoring the Grizzlies 25-16.

Chris Paul had the only bucket by a starter in the final 12 minutes, and the Clippers' bench outscored the Memphis reserves 41-11 overall.

"Our bench was our MVP," Clippers guard Randy Foye said. "They realised what they had to do. We had a lot of guys hurt, so we just continued to grind."

Now, the Clippers have their third postseason series win in 41 years and their second since relocating to Los Angeles. They last beat Denver in 2006. The Clippers also avoided becoming the ninth NBA team to blow a 3-1 lead in a best-of-seven series in moving on to play the top-seeded Spurs starting Tuesday night in San Antonio.

"I want the guys to enjoy this, and then we'll regroup tomorrow and focus in on that," Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said. "But obviously another big challenge for us."

Paul scored 19 points despite playing with a strained right hip flexor. Nick Young had nine of his 13 off the bench in the fourth as the Clippers finished off the series with their biggest margin of victory. Paul was so confident of victory he bought plane tickets for his wife and son to San Antonio on Saturday.

"I felt like we should have won earlier," Paul said. "But it doesn't matter. As long as you win, I think it is a step in the right direction for our franchise.

Rudy Gay and Marc Gasol each had 19 for Memphis, which lost a Game 7 at Oklahoma City a year ago in the second round of the playoffs. Zach Randolph had a game-high 12 rebounds.

"Unfortunately, no one on the bench stepped up and helped us," Memphis coach Lionel Hollins said.

The Clippers, who trailed 56-55 after three quarters, took control by opening the fourth with an 11-2 run started by a jumper by Martin. He tipped in a shot for a 66-58 lead with 8:41 left. Mo Williams matched the Clippers' biggest lead to that point at 10 with a 3-pointer pushing it to 71-61 with 7:04 left in a 16-5 spurt to open the quarter.

"They hit shots in a hurry," Gay said of the Clippers. "They made plays off our turnovers, and they just converted, something we weren't doing at that time."

Los Angeles finished off the win by hitting 9 of 10 free throws in the final 3:26. The Clippers also managed to outrebound the Grizzlies 46-44 for only the second time this series.

Memphis got away from the inside-out approach that won the last two games. The Grizzlies outscored the Clippers 36-24, but Randolph said they took far too many jumpers instead of feeding the ball to Gasol and himself.

"You have to take your hats off to them because they played good," Randolph said of the Clippers. "Chris had a good game, and their bench played terrific."

The home-court advantage that didn't help the Grizzlies when they blew a 27-point lead in Game 1 didn't help again Sunday as they went cold from the floor. Gasol's one-handed dunk with 3:09 left was Memphis' last field goal down the stretch as the Grizzlies hit only 4 of 18 in the fourth quarter and finished the game missing all 13 3-pointers.

This series has been physical and grinding from the opening tip, and neither team backed down in a winner-take-all game.

The Clippers and Grizzlies scrapped and fought for every ball with each possession feeling like a knockdown, drag-out fight. Memphis should have had an advantage against the hobbled Clippers tipping off when they usually eat breakfast on the West Coast. Blake Griffin scored only eight points and looked tentative most of the game with a sprained left knee.

Del Negro said Griffin's knee tightened up on him as the game went on, and Griffin played only 1:39 of the fourth quarter. Not that it mattered the way the Clippers' bench came through.

The Grizzlies even brought out wrestler Jerry Lawler to help stoke up the sold-out crowd, but both teams showed the fatigue of a quick turnaround from Game 6 on Friday night in Los Angeles. The Clippers missed nine of their first 10 shots, while the Grizzlies missed seven of nine.

"It was Game 7 pressure and jitters," Hollins said. "We wanted to do well. We just wanted to let it rip. You walk up here and have two strikes on you in the ninth inning and you have to let it rip. And we didn't."

The Clippers shook off the exhaustion thanks to their bench.

The Grizzlies managed to pull within 39-38 at halftime even though they kept struggling to find the basket. 

Mike Conley missed his first seven shots with his drought stretching to the free throw line where he missed his first attempt. Conley didn't hit his first bucket until a jumper in the early seconds of the third quarter. Conley finished with seven points on 2 of 13 shooting.

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Grizzlies Clip Win to Force No 6

The Memphis Grizzlies believe they finally played their grinding, bruising style of basketball in the playoffs.

Marc Gasol scored 23 points and Zach Randolph added 19 as the Grizzlies avoided elimination by beating the Los Angeles Clippers 92-80 on Wednesday night, forcing a Game 6 in the Western Conference first-round series.

"We've had our backs against the wall. We still have them," said Gasol, who had his best game in this series. "We haven't done anything yet, and we want to take it back to L.A. and give them another big battle."

With Gasol and Randolph scoring early, the Grizzlies looked like the team that knocked off top-seeded San Antonio last spring and took Oklahoma City to seven games in the conference semifinals as they pulled within 3-2 in this series.

Game 6 is Friday night in Los Angeles. If the Grizzlies can win, Game 7 would be Sunday in Memphis. Not that the Clippers plan on returning to Tennessee.

"Our Game 7's Friday," Clippers guard Mo Williams said.

The Grizzlies sound equally confident, feeling they should have won Games 1 and 3.

"There's no point leaving home if we don't know our way back," Grizzlies guard O.J. Mayo said. " We can't look at Sunday because we have to make sure we get back home after Friday night."

Rudy Gay added 14 points for Memphis.

Williams had 20 points for the Clippers while Chris Paul scored 19 and Blake Griffin had 15 points and 11 rebounds. Paul and Griffin both missed time in the fourth quarter with injuries.

The Clippers said Paul strained his right hip flexor, while the guard also jammed a finger. Griffin sprained his left knee.

Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said both players were being further evaluated after the game.

Paul almost single-handedly gave the Clippers a chance to close out this series in Game 5 by scoring eight of his 27 points in overtime of Game 4 and leading L.A. to the win.

This time, the four-time All-Star guard had just five points by halftime and scored nothing in the fourth quarter. He was grimacing early in the fourth quarter and was on the bench with the injured right groin. An injured groin kept him out of the Clippers' regular-season finale, a loss to New York that cost Los Angeles the No. 4 seed.

The Clippers came in needing a win to clinch their first series since 2006 and advance to a second-round series against top-seeded San Antonio. But even though Paul has plenty of postseason experience, this was the first close-out game for the likes of Griffin, Randy Foye and DeAndre Jordan.

Los Angeles last led at 17-16 before a fast-break layup by Tony Allen that was set up by a long pass from Gasol put Memphis ahead to stay at 18-17 with 5:40 left in the first quarter.

"We've got to do a better job keeping our composure a little bit," Del Negro said.

The Clippers closed the third quarter with a 14-2 run and got within six twice to conjure up memories of Memphis blowing a 27-point lead in Game 1. Foye pulled the Clippers within 85-79 on a layup with 55.7 seconds left.

"You could hear the crowd getting quieter and quieter," Foye said.

With CP3 on the bench, that was as close as the Clippers would get.

"We made enough plays and got enough stops tonight that kept us ahead," Memphis coach Lionel Hollins said. "In the past, they kept making shots, and we haven't been able to stop them. So even though our offense wasn't perfect, we got enough stops."

Hollins didn't give his Grizzlies any credit for slowing down Paul.

"I thought he did a good job of containing himself when he got hurt and went to the bench," Hollins said.

In the arena nicknamed the Grindhouse in honor of the Grizzlies' blue-collar style, Memphis pounded the ball into the paint and banged on the Clippers all game. The Grizzlies outscored Los Angeles 48-26 in the paint and had a 42-35 edge in rebounds.

Jordan said the Clippers knew the Grizzlies would force the ball inside to Gasol and Randolph early.

"They got a lot of easy post touches at the beginning of the game," Jordan said. "Throughout, a lot of their shots were contested, but once you get a groove and get comfortable, the shots become comfortable."

Griffin twice limped to the bench, once late in the first quarter with what appeared to be a ripped shoe. Then he went down under the basket late in the third after his legs tangled with Gasol's, and Griffin kept rubbing and holding his left knee. He walked gingerly to the bench but returned. It was the same knee that cost him his first season in the NBA.

Del Negro said both Paul and Griffin said they could go back in the game, so they did until Paul started hobbling a bit at the end.

Gasol scored 12 points in the first quarter. Randolph, who looked nothing like the double-double machine of last season's playoffs, hit his first six shots in scoring 15 points while grabbing five rebounds as Memphis led 36-22 at the end of the first quarter.

The Grizzlies led 57-42 at halftime and led by as many as 24 before the Clippers tried to make it interesting again.

This physical series went to a new level in the second quarter when Eric Bledsoe of the Clippers ran over to defend Quincy Pondexter and bumped him to the court. Bledsoe then heaved the ball up into the air, drawing a technical foul. That was the first of five for the Clippers, with four coming in the third quarter as Paul, Williams and Del Negro let their frustration boil over.

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Clippers Paul Takes on Grizzlies

The Los Angeles Clippers' 10-point lead late in regulation had evaporated, and Blake Griffin stood helplessly at their bench with hands on hips after fouling out in overtime. A building full of red-shirted fans sat nervously, dreading another disaster for a franchise with more than its share.

Except Chris Paul wasn't around for any of the Clippers' bad times.

Grizzlies Enjoy Mayo at Clippers

O.J. Mayo felt so responsible for how Memphis blew a 27-point lead in the series opener with the Clippers that he had barely slept since that loss. He made sure all the Grizzlies can sleep well now.

Mayo scored 10 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter, and Memphis bounced back to beat Los Angeles 105-98 on Wednesday night in Game 2.

"We'll get some good rest tonight and go to L.A. for two more games," Mayo said.

Paul Saves Clippers from Grizzlies

Chris Paul free throws save Clippers in Game 1