A winning record seemed like a challenging enough goal for the Memphis Grizzlies this season.
After all, as a team that routinely had one of the worst records in the league, the Grizzlies were coming off a franchise-best record of 28-54 last season -- and were mighty proud of it.
But Memphis has pulled off a stunning turnaround this season and is now in fifth place in the tough Western Conference.
The team's success has fans thinking about more than just making the playoffs; they are talking about home-court advantage in the first round.
What accelerated the team's turnaround?
"It's Hubieball," said Grizzlies fan Paul Trzil, whose 10-year-old son Peter wore a Shane Battier jersey to a recent home game at the Memphis Pyramid.
Hubieball is best described as the defensive intensity and teamwork instilled by coach Hubie Brown, who at age 70 is the oldest coach in the league and a clear front-runner for coach of the year.
But much of the Grizzlies' success can also be attributed to team president Jerry West, the former Lakers player, coach and executive who assembled this team without a single All-Star.
Together, Brown and West have taken the third-youngest team in the league and taught it how to win. The Grizzlies' record since Feb. 1 is the league's best.
The secret, Brown said, is showing young players how discipline and hard work -- not marquee players and star scorers -- can win games.
"As soon as this franchise makes the playoffs, the young players who excel will be recognized as All-Star players," Brown said. "If you're not in the playoffs, you're going to get overlooked."
Brown's use of a 10-man rotation has built a productive group of reserves and given the Grizzlies the stamina to maintain a pressure defense when opponents begin to tire.
The Grizzlies' swarming defense leads the league in steals (9.6), forced turnovers (17.2) and blocks (7.3) per game. Rolling over the Knicks in New York on Wednesday, the Grizzlies scored 27 points on 16 first-half turnovers.
The 10-man rotation also means experienced reserves are ready to step in when a starter is hurt. The team began its current run without starting forward Mike Miller, who was sidelined a month with back spasms.
Pau Gasol, the Grizzlies' leading scorer at 18 points and eight rebounds per game, is averaging a team-best 32 minutes. But seven other players average 25 minutes or more, and another four get at least 10 minutes a game.
Six Grizzlies are averaging in double figures with three others just shy of 10-point averages.
"The worst thing for young players, the worst thing, and I've been around since 1973," Brown said, "is they come in and they play 22 minutes tonight. The next game they come in, they don't even get in."
Brown had been out of coaching for 16 years when he got a call from West, and there were some who doubted if he could do the job. But Brown has won over the young Grizzlies with fairness and a strong knowledge of the game.
"He's a motivator," said Miller, who was traded to Memphis from Orlando last year. "The guys understand he knows how to win and we play to win. He's fun to play for."
Bo Outlaw, who at 32 is the oldest member of the team, said the key to the Grizzlies' success is easy to sum up.
"It's teamwork," Outlaw said. "It couldn't be any simpler than that."
And the fans love it.
"If you see some teams on TV and compare them with how the Grizzlies play, there's just a world of difference in the teamwork," Trzil said.
But the team's unlikely success appears to have surprised Memphis fans, who had every right to expect a not-so-stellar season. The Grizzlies' home attendance averages 14,746, and the season's two sellouts of 19,300 came when the Los Angeles Lakers were in town.
‘SU-PENKO’: Hsieh and Ostapenko face a rematch against their Australian Open final opponents, the same duo Hsieh played in last year’s Wimbledon semi-finals Taiwanese women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei and Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko on Wednesday survived a near upset to the unseeded duo of Sorana Cirstea of Romania and Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya, setting up a semi-final showdown against last year’s winners. Despite losing a hard-fought opening set 7-6 (7/4) on a tiebreak, the fourth seeds turned up the heat, losing just five games in the final two sets to handily put down Cirstea and Kalinskaya 6-3, 6-2. Nicknamed “Su-Penko,” the pair are next to face top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in a reversal of last
Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) and her Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko finished runners-up in the Wimbledon women's doubles final yesterday, losing 6-3, 2-6, 4-6. The three-set match against Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens of Belgium lasted two hours and 23 minutes. The loss denied 39-year-old Hsieh a chance to claim her 10th Grand Slam title. Although the Taiwanese-Latvian duo trailed 1-3 in the opening set, they rallied with two service breaks to take it 6-3. In the second set, Mertens and Kudermetova raced to a 5-1 lead and wrapped it up 6-2 to even the match. In the final set, Hsieh and
Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei and her Latvian partner, Jelena Ostapenko, advanced to the Wimbledon women’s doubles final on Friday, defeating top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in straight sets. The fourth-seeded duo bounced back quickly after losing their opening service game, capitalizing on frequent unforced errors by their opponents to take the first set 7-5. Maintaining their momentum in the second set, Hsieh and Ostapenko broke serve early and held their lead to close out the match 6-4. They are set to face the eighth-seeded pair of Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens
Outside Anfield, the red sea of tributes to Diogo Jota and his brother, Andre Silva, has continued to grow this week, along with questions over whether Liverpool could play at Preston today, their first game since the brothers’ tragic loss. Inside Anfield, and specifically a grieving Liverpool dressing room, there was no major debate over the pre-season friendly. The English Premier League champions intend to honor their teammate in the best way they know how. It would be only 10 days since the deaths of Jota and Silva when Liverpool appear at Deepdale Stadium for what is certain to be a hugely
RSS