Dein erstes Forum » efences, they certainly get manhandled.C

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- On the best playoff run in their short history, the Memphis Grizzlies refuse to be satisfied with just reaching their first Western Conference final. The San Antonio Spurs? Well, they know time is running out for a team that has done so very much in the NBA playoffs yet last celebrated a championship in 2007. Blowing a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals a year ago to Oklahoma City has driven the Spurs since training camp, and now they are back with Game 1 on Sunday against Memphis determined not to waste another chance. "We understand as a team that those opportunities are very rare, and we have another great one right now," Spurs guard Tony Parker said Saturday. "We have home-court advantage against a very good team, so we have to take full advantage of it." The Grizzlies are the former expansion franchise that started off in Vancouver before moving to Memphis, and they started by setting the NBA record for post-season futility while losing their first 12 playoff games. Coach Lionel Hollins, who won an NBA title in 1977 as a player with Portland, has his Grizzlies believing they can win one, too. The No. 5 seed in the West ousted first the Clippers, then the Thunder by winning eight of its last nine games, including three of four on the road. "Were just worried about going forward," Grizzlies guard Mike Conley said. "Were happy to be here, but were still focused on bigger things, and we got another tough opponent." That would be the Spurs with Tim Duncan, Parker and Manu Ginobili who swept the Grizzlies out of their first post-season in 2004. When Memphis finally won a post-season series, they beat the Spurs in six games in 2011, kicking off that series by winning the first game in San Antonio. Ginobili said the Spurs were not at their best that series and struggled to stop the Grizzlies big men in Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph. "We started with the wrong foot, we lost the first one and they got stronger and confident, and thats how they beat us," Ginobili said. This conference final pits Southwest Division rivals, with the Spurs as the dominating big brother with their four NBA championships and the fifth-best all-time winning percentage in the league since this franchise moved to the NBA in 1976. No coach and player have more post-season games than San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich and Duncan with 200 over 16 seasons. The Spurs clinched the No. 2 seed in the West winning just two more games than the Grizzlies. This should be a defensive showdown between teams built around big men with Memphis countering Duncan with 7-foot-1 Gasol and Randolph down low. Memphis held teams to an NBA-low 89.3 points during the regular season, and the Spurs tied for third in defensive efficiency. The Grizzlies also were second defending the 3, which could slow down Parker and Ginobili. "Finding ways to score is going to be very difficult," Popovich said. "Just playing against their defence is enough of a concern right off the bat." Hollins said beauty will be in the eye of the beholder for this series. "Some people think its ugly, some people think its beautiful," Hollins said. "I dont know. Dont really care." Home court mattered during the regular season as these teams split with each winning on their own floor. Remember when Popovich sent Duncan, Parker, Ginobili and Danny Green home to avoid playing the Heat in Miami on Nov. 29th? Well, that rest at the end of a six-game road trip cost the Spurs an unprecedented $250,000 fine. But the move paid off when the Spurs hosted the Grizzlies on Dec. 1 when Memphis was off to an NBA-best 12-2 start with a 99-95 win by San Antonio. Three of the teams matchups came before Memphis traded away Rudy Gay on Jan. 30. Memphis won the last game April 1 when Conley drove the lane for a layup and a 92-90 win on a night where Kawhi Leonard stayed in San Antonio with a sore left knee, Duncan sat out and Ginobili was out with a strained hamstring. "Its going to be a tough series," Randolph said. "Every time weve played them its a tough series. They got Ginobili, Parker, and they got a lot of other guys who do great things for the team." San Antonio went 35-6 at home in the regular season, then swept the Lakers to open the playoffs. The Warriors tested that home-court advantage forcing the Spurs to go to overtime to pull out the first game of that series and did win Game 2. The Spurs won Game 5 at home before closing out the series Thursday night. That forces the Spurs into a quicker turnaround, even though they do get to start at home. "I dont think you need any more challenge than playing in the conference finals and having the opportunity to go to the NBA Finals," Ginobili said. "Not that we needed that. It is big enough." Memphis has been on a bit of a revenge tour this post-season. The Grizzlies ousted the Clippers in six after losing to Los Angeles in seven last year, then they made up for their 2011 Western semifinal loss to Oklahoma City by knocking off the defending Western champs in five games. A key in this series will be Parker and Conley. Parker is averaging 22.4 points a game this post-season, while Conley is averaging a career-best 17.6 points while handing out 7.6 assists a game. "Hes the real key to their basketball team," Popovich said. "Everybody just thinks about Zach and Marc, who are sufficiently wonderful as players. But Conley is very, very important to that group." They got an extra day of rest after Wednesday nights 88-84 win over the Thunder. Now they have geared up again focusing on defence, rebounding and trying to outscore an opponent in the paint, which already has worked so well this post-season. "Its the same recipe," Gasol said. "Its just a little tougher." Vapormax Plus Falsas . They reached the 100-point plateau for the fourth time in five games, bested the visiting Trail Blazers by 34 in the paint and scored 19 of the final 25 points in regulation. Zapatillas Nike Just Do It Hombre . Nine days before the opening ceremony, organizing committee chief Dmitry Chernyshenko said Wednesday that Sochi is "fully ready" and will deliver safe, friendly and well-run games that defy the grim reports that have overshadowed preparations. http://www.vapormaxbaratas.com/air-max-plus-tn-baratas-venta/ultra.html . They hope to persuade the other team owners and commissioner Roger Goodell to put pressure on Redskins owner Daniel Snyder to drop the nickname they find offensive. "Given the way the meeting transpired," Ray Halbritter, an Oneida representative and leader of the "Change the Mascot Campaign," said Wednesday, "it became somewhat evident they were defending the continued use of the name. Nike Air Max Plus Tn Hombre .ca looks back at the stories and moments that made the year memorable. Air Max Vapormax Baratas . But Bourque, who has missed three games with a lower-body injury, wont be in the lineup when the Habs travel to Buffalo to take on the Sabres on Wednesday. Tall shooting combinations are starting to become a regular feature of international netball, but Diamonds goal attack Natalie Medhurst insists theres no danger shorter players will get squeezed out.Australia fielded possibly their tallest ever starting shooting combination in last Sundays opening Constellation Cup Test in Sydney, with the 193cm-tall and established star Caitlin Bassett joined by emerging talent Gretel Tippett, 192cm tall.Between them they landed their first 29 attempts at goal, until Tippett missed one shortly before halftime.Diamonds coach Lisa Alexander has usually favoured a more conventional paring, teaming Bassett with the 175cm-tall Medhurst.The message travels a lot quicker for us shorter players, so were the smart ones, thats what I always say, Medhurst quipped.Those tall shooters, I see what they cop from the defences, they certainly get manhandled.Certainly small, smart, crafty players are not going to get phased out of our game, thats for sure.While Aleexander hinted at more opportunities for Tippett, Medhurst is Australias most proven goal attack.dddddddddddd.She will become the seventh most capped Diamond ever if she plays in the second Constellation Cup Test on Wednesday in Launceston.Poised to win her 85th cap, 32-year-old Medhurst won back-to-back player of the match awards in last months Quad Series.New Zealands circle defenders were giving away significant height to Bassett and Tippett in Sydney.Silver Ferns captain and 186cm goal defence Katrina Grant said two tall shooters were tough to mark.It definitely seems to be the way the game is going, bringing in all these tall players, Grant said.You used to only see it in the goal shoot, youre not used to seeing that goal attack and goal shoot working together so tall.Thats on us to really grind them down and work on how to make them make mistakes. 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