San Antonio Spurs Strong Defense Propels Them to Win Over Memphis Grizzlies

The San Antonio Spurs extended their win streak to three games on Sunday evening, defeating the Memphis Grizzlies 103-89 at home.

The Grizzlies fell behind by seven points at the end of the first quarter, giving themselves a difficult road to pick up the win.

Memphis was able to cut the deficit to four entering the final quarter, but, a strong fourth quarter by San Antonio put this game away.

Now that the game is over, let’s take a look at our studs and duds of the game, along with key statistics.

Studs of the Game

San Antonio Spurs

Kawhi Leonard continued to play well for the Spurs, once again being the focal point of the offense. The former first-round pick grabbed another double-double on the season, his 13th of the season, finishing with 25 points and 10 rebounds. Leonard did not swarm the ball on the defensive side of the court as we are accustomed to seeing but it didn’t really matter as San Antonio still picked up the win.

Memphis Grizzlies

Zach Randolph really struggled in his last outing against the Spurs, therefore it was imperative that former All-Star had a good night. Randolph did just that, out-muscling the San Antonio bigs to the tune of 20 points and 13 rebounds. Defense was also a strong point for Z-Bo on the night as he limited Tim Duncan to just 10 points in 24 minutes.

Duds of the Game

San Antonio Spurs

There weren’t any clear bad performances from individual Spurs on Sunday but since this award has to be handed out, we will give it to Patty Mills. The Australian guard only saw about 13 minutes of floor time but definitely did not make the most of it, going 1-of-5 from the field for two points. That’s not a great night but when you come off the bench and don’t necessarily know how many minutes you will get, it’s tough to stay consistent.

Memphis Grizzlies

Mike Conley might have have lost the game for his team on Sunday with his dreadful performance against the Spurs. Sure we can talk about the nine assists he picked up, but that masks the awful 2-of-11 shooting performance Conley had. Throw in the fact that he finished with a team-low minus-16 plus-minus and you start to catch my drift.

Key Numbers

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0: That’s the biggest lead the Grizzlies had in this game. San Antonio did an excellent job of shutting down Memphis early on the way to the win. This game was extremely important for playoff positioning and the Spurs made a huge statement with the kind of performance they put on.

8: That’s the number of turnovers the Spurs committed in their win over the Grizzlies. It’s a big reason that they were able to come away with the win. Memphis is known as a strong defensive team and had they come away with a few more turnovers, especially early in the fourth, this final score could be looking a lot different.

10: That’s the number of players for San Antonio that finished in the scoring column. While Kawhi Leonard was the main man, it was a true team effort with 10 players able to score the ball. The idea of a full team effort is even more evident with the 25 assists the Spurs complied.