[Cinco de Mayo]

Sunday, November 23rd, 2003 -- Staples Center -- 8:00EST

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(6-5) | (10-3)









Questionable:

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Memphis
The Grizzlies stand at 6-5 going into tonight's game, with (as talula points out) the 2nd toughest schedule in the league. One of those wins is over the Lakers. Jason Williams is coming off a red-hot 28 point performance at Seattle, topped off with six three-pointers, including a tiebreaker with eleven seconds left in the game. JWill's 28 points matches the highest total output by a Grizzly this season. Dahntay Jones also saw his first action of the season and compiled a couple blocks on Flip Murray to go along with one rebound and one assist.

LA Lakers
The Lakers have been sluggish at best, losing somewhat handily to Detroit before edging the lowly Bulls. The biggest loss, however, came in the 3rd quarter against Chicago, as Shaquille O'Neal strained his calf and is listed as questionable for tonight's game. Personally, I feel he'll play, since he probably feels he has something to prove to the Grizzlies, who ran LA out of the Pyramid on November 10th in a not-as-close-as-it-sounds 105-95 dissection. Kobe Bryant scored 28 points of his own against the Bulls. The Lakers are trying to protect their 22 game home winning streak, which is another reason Shaq will likely take the floor tonight.

Closing
The Grizzlies exploited this team's deficiencies in the last meeting. Los Angeles does not like to run at all, and if Memphis fast breaks them all night long, the aging legs of Horace Grant and Bryon Russell will severely hamper their bench's defense. James Posey and Shane Battier will have to glue themselves to Bryant, who is in better shape than he was two weeks ago. Should Shaq play, Tsakalidis needs to work on exactly the same way he did in the last meeting. Pau Gasol regularly owns Karl Malone nowadays, and with criticism over his play as of late, Pau should try to make a statement right now against the Mailman.
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ROUNDTOWN</center>

[UKfan4Life]

Shouldn't James Posey be guarding Kobe? Posey is arguable the Grizzlies most active defender right now.

[talula]

Originally posted by <b>rawse</b>!

Personally, I feel he'll play, since he probably feels he has something to prove to the Grizzlies, who ran LA out of the Pyramid on November 10th in a not-as-close-as-it-sounds 105-95 dissection.

I hope you're wrong about that.

Karl Malone isn't 100% either.

[HKF]

Unfortunately I don't expect the Grizz to win this game because it's in LA. But if they can show some consistency they have a chance to steal a huge road win with or without Shaq.

[Dakota]

It's Dahntay time Hopefully Dahntay can steal some more pt away from the guards this game. Look to see him if Posey and Person are struggling early.

Grizz vs. Lakers: GOO GRIZZ BABY HOLLA HELLA BACK

[Cinco de Mayo]

Originally posted by <b>newmessiah10</b>!
Unfortunately I don't expect the Grizz to win this game because it's in LA. But if they can show some consistency they have a chance to steal a huge road win with or without Shaq.

I'm expecting no less than a dozen "blown calls" in the fourth quarter. Anything less in the Staples Center, and something is clearly wrong.

[UKfan4Life]

The game starts in about 15 minutes...

[talula]

Matt Devlin just said that Shaq isn't playing tonight.

[UKfan4Life]

Did anyone see that bullcrap offensive foul call on Mike Miller? Oh I swear Karl Malone wasn't moving right into him. There were about 12 super-star calls in the first half alone. That's just ridiculous.

[Cinco de Mayo]

The no-calls in the last 6:00 of the first half were a bit on the ridiculous side. If I was Mike Miller, I would have flipped out by now. But as Hubie has said, "We're used to not getting any calls." Especially considering where we are.

That being said, let's correct what we're able to control. Like stopping three total scrubs (Grant, Russell, Medvedenko) from scoring at will on us. This Gasol vs. Laker PF matchup has been some of the worst combined defense I've seen in a while. D up, for the love of God...it's Bryon Russell.

Hopefully, some shots will fall in the third.

[talula]

Half
Memphis 48
Los Angeles 59


Lakers
Bryant 16 points
Medvedenko 6 rebounds
Payton 8 assists


Grizzlies
Gasol 12 points
Miller 8 rebounds
Williams/Watson 4 assists


Grizzlies are shooting 54% from the field. The no-calls are ridiculous, but we should be used to that by now.

[UKfan4Life]

Originally posted by <b>rawse</b>!
The no-calls in the last 6:00 of the first half were a bit on the ridiculous side. If I was Mike Miller, I would have flipped out by now. But as Hubie has said, "We're used to not getting any calls." Especially considering where we are.

That being said, let's correct what we're able to control. Like stopping three total scrubs (Grant, Russell, Medvedenko) from scoring at will on us. This Gasol vs. Laker PF matchup has been some of the worst combined defense I've seen in a while. D up, for the love of God...it's Bryon Russell.

Hopefully, some shots will fall in the third.

Gary Payton also got mad about the offensive foul called on him. I bet he knew he did it, he just didn't think the refs would call it because 1) he's an all-star and 2) he's a Laker playing at the Staples Center.

The officiating in the NBA has steadily gotten worse over the years. Whenever I watch the old time games on NBA T.V., rarely, if at all, do I see a super-star call or do I see a call that goes unnoticed.

[Cinco de Mayo]

Originally posted by <b>UKfan4Life</b>!
The officiating in the NBA has steadily gotten worse over the years. Whenever I watch the old time games on NBA T.V., rarely, if at all, do I see a super-star call or do I see a call that goes unnoticed.

Yup.

Although the refs didn't kill us in the first half -- turnovers and no interior defense did.

As far as the third quarter goes, the refs are just working us with the offensive fouls. I've never seen so many offensives called in my life. It's just predictable.