Grizzlies end seven-game slide vs. Cavs with OT victory 109 - 111

Dec 8, 2009

Rudy Gay had the difficult task of going up against LeBron James Tuesday night. By halftime, he couldn't have imagined playing much worse than he did. Offensively, Gay missed eight of his 10 shots, as well as both of his free throw attempts as he scored just four points. Defensively, James lit him up for 22 points after hitting eight of his 10 shots, including a pair of 3-pointers as Cleveland built a 59-48 halftime lead. Gay realized something had to change quickly if the Memphis Grizzlies were going to have any shot and stopping the streaking Cavaliers. Gay re-focused defensively, then got his offense going and the Grizzlies managed to knock off their second straight division-leading opponent, picking up a 109-107 overtime victory in front of 16,325 at FedExForum. "Personally, I knew what I had to do at halftime,'' Gay said. "I knew what kind of game I was starting to have. At that point I just had to step up. For the most part, everybody just tuned in in the second half. It takes a bunch of focus [to guard James]. He's a great player. I love it. I love going into the game knowing I have that task. It just helps me step up my game.''

After a 1-8 start, the Grizzlies have now won eight of their last 12 games, and are riding their second three-game winning streak of the season, while snapping Cleveland's four-game winning streak. The Grizzlies were in danger of getting blown out by the Cavs in the second quarter when Cleveland opened up a 16-point lead. But they managed to trim that to 11 points by halftime. A 14-5 run to start the second half got both the Grizzlies and their second largest crowd of the season back into the game. By the end of the third quarter, Cleveland's lead was down to 78-76. Defense was the Grizzlies' calling card in the second half as they forced the Cavs into 13 turnovers after intermission. Gay began forcing James to take tougher shots. Although James finished with 43 points, he missed 14 of his final 20 attempts. "They got up in us defensively," Cleveland coach Mike Brown said. "When they did that, we had some bad turnovers that gave them easy dunks in transition. When you give up those types of dunks in transition, you're going to ignite a crowd. When the crowd gets going, it's going to give you confidence as a team, and that's what happened. You have to give Memphis credit for picking it up defensively in the second half." The Grizzlies took their first lead since the opening quarter with a 6-0 run to start the fourth period. A jumper by Gay gave them an 88-83 lead with 8:05 to play. Memphis then went scoreless for the next three minutes, allowing Cleveland to take a 91-88 lead.

After the Grizzlies regained the lead, Cleveland went up 100-98 when James put back a miss by Shaquille O'Neal with 22 seconds left in regulation. Gay answered with a drive to the basket with 18 seconds left. With James looking for a game-winner, Gay forced him to lose control of the ball before hoisting a desperation shot at the buzzer that missed. Memphis opened up a 106-102 lead with 1:56 remaining in overtime before James canned a 3. He then put the Cavs up 107-106 with 23.7 seconds to go. But O.J. Mayo got open for a 3 with 19.1 seconds to put Memphis back on top 109-107. James tied the game with two free throws before Conley put the Grizzlies back on top, scoring on a layup after an open lane to the basket on a pick and roll. "The last play was just trying to get into the paint to make a play,'' Conley said. "We were trying to go at their bigs a little bit because they don't hedge out on the pick and roll. I got a good look and just had to finish the shot and luckily it went it." With three second left, Cleveland had one last shot, but James received the inbounds pass well beyond the 3-point line, and had to hoist a long shot that came up short.

"With three seconds left in the game, that was for the most part the best shot I could take," James said. James' 43 points and 13 rebounds were season-highs to go along with his six assists. Mo Williams had 20 points, eight assists and six boards and O'Neal added 16 points and six rebounds. Memphis was led by the trio of Zach Randolph, who had a season-high 32 points and 14 rebounds, Mayo's 28, and Gay's 21. The Grizzlies' starters combined to score 104 of the team's 111 points, two shy of the franchise record (106) set April 14, 2007 against Denver. The win snapped a seven-game losing streak to the Cavs. For the third time in 11 days, the Grizzlies knocked off a team with a winning percentage of .667 or higher. In addition to beating Dallas last Friday, they won at Portland Nov. 27. "We're proving to ourselves, the fans and [the media] as well, that we can compete," Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins said. "We won't always win, but we can compete and be in the games. There will be nights when we'll have clunkers and we'll get blown out. We're growing as a team. Hopefully, the fans were excited and saw that they should come out and watch us and that we're going to give them a good effort. We made some noise tonight around the NBA."

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