The San Antonio Spurs started off their series against the Golden State Warriors with a bad defensive performance that resulted in a double overtime win and after turning things on to finish the series the team showed championship form and that has continued into the Western conference finals, as the spurs defeated the Memphis Grizzlies 105-83 in Game 1 on Sunday.
The Grizzlies are making their first franchise appearance in the conference finals and it got started off in a very unfavorable way, as the Spurs outscored Memphis in every quarter but the second, including 31-14 in the first, which turned out to be a deficit they could not overcome. The Spurs continued to play ball like it's 2007, when they won their third title in five year, with Tony Parker leading the way with 20 points and nine assists, while Tim Duncan continued to play like a younger version of himself, grabbing 10 rebounds to lead the team.
Parker has been the biggest factor for the Spurs this postseason and he continued that in Game 1, making nine of 14 shots taken in the game while the team overall hit a franchise record with 14 3-pointers made. The biggest issue for Memphis was the play from Zach Randolph, who has been very consistent with the Grizzlies throughout the playoffs, but he missed his first seven shots and ended up just one for eight and has just two points. Parker abused the defense of Tony Allen on the perimeter and the Spurs were able to take Game 1 easily after the last series when they had to come back from 16 points down to win in double overtime despite 44 points from Warriors guard Stephen Curry.
Randolph will be the biggest factor for them Grizzlies going forward, as he scored 28 points and snagged 14 rebounds in the final game against the Oklahoma City Thunder that clinched the series, but he was fully outplayed on Sunday. The Spurs got solid play from their role and bench players, with Danny Green adding 16 points and Matt Bonner scoring 12 points on four three pointers. The Grizzlies got 15 points from Marc Gasol, while Parker was able to outplay Mike Conley, who scored 14 points while leading the team with eight assists. Last time around when these two teams faced off in the playoffs, Parker was easily considered far superior to Conley, but after his play this season and in the playoffs, Conley is much closer to Parker's equal at the position for his team.
The Heat and Pacers are playing on the Eastern side of the bracket, a rematch from last season and Miami is looking to get to its second straight finals after defeating Oklahoma City last year. The Knicks put up a good fight against the Pacers, but fell 4-2 in the series after losing Game 6 and now the team must go home and think about their season and finishing with the number two spot in the East.
