Say what? The best team for most of the regular season—whose corps has won 4 titles together—loses to a team that has never won a playoff game and was missing their best player in Rudy Gay. Sure there are some excuses for a tough series for San Antonio—Ginobli was banged up, the Grizzlies are big inside which exploits a Spurs weakness—but the Grizzlies in 6 relatively dominant games? I guess Memphis was just perfectly constructed to beat the Spurs. They had quick point guard Mike Conley to balance out Tony Parker. They had veteran defenders Shane Battier and Tony Allen to guard Parker, Manu Ginobli, Richard Jefferson, and George Hill. Most of all, Memphis had Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol dominating Tim Duncan and company down low. Randolph and Gasol combined for a 34 point and 19 rebound average during the series while Duncan only mustered 13 and 10 and received limited support from fellow forwards Tiago Splitter and DeJaun Blair. Essentially the Spurs have become what we couldn’t let ourselves believe for so long: too old. Parker, Ginobli, and Duncan were once great players; now they are simply good and aren’t enough to carry the rest of the team to playoff glory. Memphis’ effort level exceeded the Spurs in each game, and if not for a buzzer beater by Gary Neal, the Grizzlies would have taken this series in 5. Zach Randolph has long been pegged as lazy, indifferent, and not a leader. In this series he took Memphis on his back, was the best player on the floor, and absolutely closed down Game 6 with tough shot after tough shot. Some of the shots he made were surreal in their level of difficulty and the pressure of the moment. Randolph became a superstar in this 6-game span. The Spurs dynasty is officially over, what a ride it was.
--from Adam
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