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The Teen Appeal
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After playing in Memphis for five years, the Memphis Grizzlies have made it to the NBA playoffs for the third straight season. This season, under the leadership of coach Mike Fratello, All-Star Pau Gasol and Mike Miller, Memphis compiled a record of 49-33 with their highest seeding in playoff history (fifth).
The road to the playoffs was definitely no walk in the park, though. It started at the beginning of the season when Jerry West traded away “one-year wonder” James Posey and “head case” Jason Williams to the Miami Heat for veteran Eddie Jones. He also signed veteran point guards Damon Stoudamire and Bobby Jackson to create one of the deepest teams in the league.
For a while, things seemed great. The Grizzlies were off to their best start in the franchise’s history. Then Stoudamire went down with a season-ending injury. Although this hurt the Grizzlies, the team did not lose much momentum. Jerry West then signed free agent point guard Chucky Atkins. Since February, Atkins smoothly moved into place.
“Memphis has let me play my game, and I have fit perfectly into the system,” Atkins said in an interview after the Grizzlies game with the Clippers on April 18.
There was a bit of controversy at the end of Memphis’s season. With the divisional format in the playoffs, the Grizzlies got the fifth seed and Dallas got the fourth seed. If seeding was based on records, the Grizzlies should have been a fourth seed and the Mavericks should have been a number two seed. None of the players seemed too upset by it, though.
“Either way, you still have to win the games,” said former Memphian and Grizzlies center Lorenzon Wright.
It has been tough for Memphis in past playoffs, as they were swept in each of the last two seasons. However, this year the Grizzlies face the fourth-seeded Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the playoffs, and even though they have never won a playoff game before now, they enter this season with more experience and momentum.
“A big help would be if we could steal one on the road,” Shane Battier said. “The last two years we lost the first two games on the road, and had to come back to Memphis already down two games.”
Whatever the playoffs hold for the Grizzlies, the future is bright for this team of a good mix of experienced veterans and young players with a lot of potential.