Spurs Sweep Grizzlies, Wait for Winner of Heat-Pacers
Though there were two overtime games in the Western Conference Finals, it never felt that close. The San Antonio Spurs closed out the Memphis Grizzlies with a clean sweep on Monday night, earning their fifth appearance in the Finals in the Tim Duncan era. They are a perfect 4-0 in their four previous appearances.
The Spurs were three-point underdogs in the deciding game, but they won handily, 93-86, based largely on the otherworldly performance of point guard Tony Parker, who shot 15 for 21 from the floor and scored 37 points. Tim Duncan was the second leading scorer on the night, and he only chipped in 15. It was truly a closing performance for the ages from Parker.
“It’s a great feeling,” Parker said. “Since last year, I promised to him (Duncan) that we will go back, go back to the Finals and get an opportunity to win the whole thing and I’m trying to do my best, try to be aggressive every night. I think everybody on the team, we really want to do it for him. We win the West and now it’s one more step. This is the hardest one.”
“He’s been amazing,” the Spurs’ Tim Duncan said of Parker. “Every year he gets better and better and better. He’s been carrying us. You can see tonight he carried us the entire game.”
“We want to get back there,” Duncan continued. “We’ve had some really close years where we fell right on the verge of getting back. It feels like forever since we’ve been there.”
The Spurs’ core group of players (Duncan, Parker and Manu Ginobili) have been together for years, and the whole team knows that one last title would define their legacies as one of the best trios of basketball players of all time.
“You don’t expect that to happen maybe this late in the game with the same group,” Spurs’ coach Gregg Popovich said. “It’s tough to do, to maintain something that long. But it just shows the character of those three guys and their ability to play with whoever else is brought in around them. They deserve a lot of credit for that.”
Memphis had one of their best seasons ever, but it wasn’t enough against the older and more experienced Spurs. However, the Grizzlies are young, and while their head coach is a free agent this offseason, the Grizz fully expect to return to a position of prominence in the NBA playoffs moving forward.
“We learned that winning isn’t easy and winning championships is one of the hardest things you can possibly do,” the Grizzlies’ Quincy Pondexter said. “I think our guys really dug deep to get as far as we did, and San Antonio’s a tremendous team. We’re going to take a couple pages out of their book.”
Here were some of the other betting trends for Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals, courtesy of OddsShark.com:
San Antonio Spurs Trends:
When playing on Monday are 6-4
Before playing Memphis are 6-4
After playing Memphis are 10-0
After a win are 8-2
Memphis Grizzlies Trends:
When playing on Monday are 5-5
Before playing San Antonio are 5-5
After playing San Antonio are 6-4
After a loss are 6-4
A few Spurs at Grizzlies trends to consider:
San Antonio is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games
San Antonio is 5-1 SU in its last 6 games on the road
San Antonio is 9-2 SU in its last 11 games when playing Memphis
The total has gone OVER in 4 of San Antonio’s last 5 games
Memphis is 19-2 SU in its last 21 games at home
The total has gone OVER in 4 of Memphis’s last 5 games
The total has gone OVER in 4 of Memphis’s last 5 games at home
Memphis is 7-3 SU in its last 10 games when playing at home against San Antonio
