Grizz Fever

written by: stacia_doss.

Memphis Grizzlies victorious against Dallas Mavericks on
April 7, 2012.

This weekend was just what I needed...some time away from the St. Louis area and a visit back to my home state, Tennessee.

The Memphis Grizzlies faced the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday, April 7, at the FedEx Forum for a game that was pretty integral to securing the Grizzlies a more favorable playoff spot. 

The team successfully defeated the Mavericks 94-89, placing the Grizzlies at fifth place in the Western Conference.

Rudy Gay and Zach Randolph led the team in scoring with a combined 40 points. Recent addition Gilbert Arenas looked almost unstoppable, bringing high energy and contributing 14 points to the team's victory, spending just over 17 minutes in the game. 

Overall, every player that stepped on the court for Memphis in some way contributed to the win over Dallas. It was "team work" in every sense of the phrase. 

Dallas was led by Dirk Nowitzki, who had 17 points and 2 assists. Jason Terry led the team with assists, ending the night with 8, and 12 points total.  

Sadly, this was the first and last time I'd see the husband of one of my favorite reality stars in a Dallas jersey (Lamar Odom).

*The Grizzlies faced the Los Angeles Clippers Monday night at home, and added another victory to the list with 94-85 win. 

This was the first regular season Grizz game I have attended in a long time. The atmosphere was great, the attendance was great, and I had an overall good time. It felt just as good as the playoff game I attended last year. Check out my pictures from the game. I had some pretty amazing seats! 

*=updated

NBA postseason of hope and uncertainty

article by:stacia_doss.

Darrell Arthur(MEM) guards Russell
Westbrook(OKC) as he drives in for the
shot.

What a great winter and spring the Grizzlies had! They ended their victorious NBA postseason Sunday night, when the Oklahoma City Thunder defeated them 105-90 to close the series. But the high of how far the team came didn't end in Oklahoma City.

As the team arrived in Memphis, the players and coaches were greeted by over 1,000 fans welcoming the Grizzlies home at Wilson Air. The welcome only further stressed the echoing words that followed the team throughout the 2011 Playoffs: Believe Memphis. Fans truly showed that they still believe, and that's something the team has needed for a long time. Things should only go up from here. Congratulations, Grizz!

After the Oklahoma City Thunder's hard fought series win over the Memphis Grizzlies ended on Sunday, the team packed up to face the Dallas Mavericks in Dallas on Tuesday night. To no surprise, Dirk Nowitzki led the Mavericks with 48 points. His efforts propelled the team to a 121-112 victory over the Thunder. Kevin Durant respectively had 40 points, with eight rebounds and five assists. Thabo Sefolosha helped with two steals.

On the other side of the scoreboard's top player stats, though, were contributions mainly made by players other than Nowitski. Tyson Chandler had eight rebounds, Jason Kidd had 11 assists and three steals. JJ Barea was also a key player in Dallas' Tuesday night win. The key to an OKC win on the road will have to be somehow stopping Nowitzki's thunder, but with the help of his starters and bench, he seems unstoppable. The two teams will face off again for Game 2 Thursday May 19 at 8p.m. Check this out.

 AP Photo: Derrick Rose (CHI) guards Dwayne Wade (MIA)
challenging a tough shot.

In other NBA news, many anticipated the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls match up. Carlos Boozer and Derrick Rose met the likes of the Heat's "triple treat" which includes Chris Bosh, but more recently named "dynamic duo" of Lebron James and Dwayne Wade. The result was a Bulls 103-82 win in Chicago Sunday night.

In the regular season, Chicago won over Miami in all three games that the teams met. However, the stats overall were extremely close. None of those games were won by much more than a few points. But Sunday night told a different story. The next game will be Wednesday night at 7:30. Will Miami pull through or will Chicago ultimately win the Eastern conference finals?

Every game this series

written by:stacia_doss.
...I've been away from the television, but have heard and read about Memphis playing phenomenally from either the radio, Twitter, or an app on my phone. But when I finally get to a television, things quickly have began to go somewhat awry.

Above: Marc Gasol (Grizzlies) and
Serge Ibaka (Thunder),
Courtesy of zimbio.com

Monday night, all I heard was good things. The Memphis Grizzlies had an 18 point lead over the Oklahoma City Thunder. Z-Bo, Gasol, Mike Conley and the rest of the Memphis crew were on FIRE! Then..I got home. I watched the lead quickly dwindle down before my eyes, and with the start of the second half, it appeared the lead was quickly slipping, slipping...and gone.

I looked away for a while, reading tweets frequently to update me, and I figured I would lay my head down and let the Grizzlies work their magic without my eyes on the television. Before I knew it, my followers on Twitter had tweeted "OT!" I went to sleep thinking (with confidence) "The Grizz have got this."

To my surprise, I woke up to a 133-123 Thunder win in not overtime, but TRIPLE overtime!

Charles Barkley, along with former Grizzlies' head coach Mike Fratello made a prediction before the game that whichever team won Game 4 would when the series.

Fortunately, neither one of them are fortune tellers, and I hope their prophecy does not come to life.

Besides, I feel like the versatility of the Grizzlies would be tougher competition for the Dallas Mavericks. How Dallas swept the Lakers on Sunday with a 36 point victory speaks volumes for what the team could do against the Thunder, a team that (unlike the Grizzlies), has a large majority of its points coming from two players every game.

May the best team win.

Enjoy these positive "Grizz" articles I found during my browsing today (one of them supports my argument).

*The Memphis Grizzlies Unprecedented Climb

*Mavericks Should Hope for Thunder Victory over Grizzlies

* Reasons to Believe

Walkin' in Memphis...

written by: stacia_doss.
I traveled 285 miles down the road this weekend to see the Memphis Grizzlies trample the San Antonio Spurs. (Or so I hoped that's what I would see.) Lucky for me, things went my way!

The Grizzlies ended the night and nearly began Saturday morning with a 99-91 victory over the Spurs late Friday night. The intensity in the FedEx Forum was like nothing I had ever witnessed before. Most of the people in the stands held "Believe Memphis" towels that they excitedly waved with nearly every play. It was great!

Just two days after eliminating San Antonio, Memphis moved on to start Round 2 of the playoffs against the Oklahoma City Thunder. The team took their first victory and a 1-0 lead for the start of the Conference Semi-Final playoffs with a score of 114-101 against the Thunder. This is going to indeed be a tough series for both of these young teams, but I anticipate watching the fight to victory.

Second round hopes 'spurring' away from San Antonio

article by: stacia_doss.
Here are just a few of the headlines I read Monday night and Tuesday morning:

  Grizzlies maul Spurs, game away from clinching series

  Grizzlies. Blow. Out. Spurs. 3-1.

  Off the Dribble: Spurs Pushed to Brink by Grizzlies



FedEx Forum in downtown Memphis, Tennessee.

But the biggest indicator of the significance of the Memphis Grizzlies' 104-86 victory over the San Antonio Spurs Monday night was the headline of an article by Gary Parrish of CBSSports.com that read: "Grizzlies gaining believers with each huge win." Better yet, this statement was proved with an even more reliable source: Twitter.

Being a graduate of The University of Memphis, most of the people I follow either live in or are from the blues city.  Tickets for both Games 3 and 4 sold out at the FedEx Forum, but the reactions of the people in Memphis who weren't in attendance of the game told the story.

My timeline was flooded with dozens of Memphis Grizzlies' fans. No one cared if they weren't fans before. The fact that a professional team in their city has done so well was enough to cheer with pride. But what made me even more haughty was the fact of being able to see where they've come from. As an intern last season, I saw so much potential. I knew with the right additions and growth, this young team would make their way to the playoffs and be successful.

And it happened. I have faith that Memphis will progress to the second round of the NBA Playoffs. I am ecstatic that they are finally getting the support they deserve and I hope televised regular season games and sold out stands will, sooner than later, be the result.

Congratulations, Grizzlies.

I'm proud.

Let me start this post...

article by: stacia_doss.
by sending a huge CONGRATULATIONS!!! to the Memphis Grizzlies on the team's first playoff win in the history of its franchise. They defeated the San Antonio Spurs, who held the second best regular season record in the league,  in Game 1 of the NBA playoffs Sunday afternoon in San Antonio.

The Grizzlies win came about with a combined 49 points from center Marc Gasol and forward Zach Randolph, who also had 14 defensive rebounds during the game. With eight lead changes and eight ties throughout the game, Memphis was able to seal the deal after the Spurs' guard George Hill fouled the Grizzlies Tony Allen, leaving him with two free throw shots. The 101-98 win brought a spirit of victory across the city of Memphis, I'm sure. Game 2 Wednesday night in San Antonio. Then, the teams will head to Memphis for games 3 and 4.



"The Celebrity Apprentice" cast (Courtesy of: nbc.com)

In completely other news, I have been keeping up with Donald Trump's "The Celebrity Apprentice (CA)," Season four. I have also been taking note of his interest in becoming the possible GOP frontrunner for the 2012 election against President Obama. Here's some information on that. It's pretty much all I care to post regarding it. :-) But, CA has been an eye opener for how things are in the real world. Not everyone is a leader, and not everyone can follow. Sometimes in life, we come across people who can do neither. Those people are pretty much Gary Busey.

Have a great afternoon, folks. Sorry I've been away for so long, but I'm back!!

Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam...

article by: stacia_doss.
I was in Oklahoma this past week.  My alma mater Memphis Tigers were playing in that very state on Friday while I was there, but I unfortunately wasn't in Tulsa. I was in Oklahoma City.

I couldn't be more proud of the Tigers, though, and their phenomenal performance against the Arizona Wildcats. On my ride back to "Native America" from Dallas, I listened to every play of the tournament game. It's just too bad when calls can't seem to go your way. Still, great job for making it so far, Memphis Tigers! They were underestimated, at first, and superseded the expectations of most. :)

What I thoroughly enjoyed about my weekend, however, was the Oklahoma City Thunder (vs. the Charlotte Bobcats) game my sister gave me the pleasure of attending. It was my first NBA game outside of Memphis' FedEx Forum, and I couldn't help but compare my experience to those I had last season working with the Memphis Grizzlies.

The venue: No doubt, the Thunderdome brings in a heck of a lot more fans than Memphis typically does. The sad thing is that Memphis is a good team, too. But the Tigers bring in more home fans on average than the Grizzlies do. The only time I witnessed sell-out games were if the Grizz were playing big-named teams like the Lakers or Heat. It pretty much hurt my heart to even think about it.

The Atmosphere: The fans were so amped and pumped. Even motivating music was playing during the game (and not just during time-outs). I could feel the real love from the fans and how it is truly shown to both them and the players during the entire game. I honestly cannot say I've felt the same during the Grizzlies games. In fact, I remember a time where free t-shirts had been given out to fans, and the players had made a couple of bad plays, so the "fans" started throwing them on the ground. At the Thunder game? Whether the team was doing great or a little shaky, it had full fan support during the game's entirety.

After experiencing my first NBA game outside of Tennessee, I just want the fans to do better. If a team that has shown significant improvement and a major increase in wins over the past few years still can't get much support, there's not a lot of hope for it's survival.

If not, I fear the team won't be in Memphis for too much longer.

So the blog has been on hiatus for a while...

written by:stacia_doss.
I've been tediously studying for an important test, but I certainly haven't been slacking in keeping up with status of my teams.

The Memphis Grizzlies have made me very proud, winning all eight of their preseason games. But I'll never forget what Coach Lionel Hollins said in a press conference.

"Preseason means nothing..." Well..it means something, but he was referring to the preseason performance in comparison to regular season games.

I am confident that they can take the hard work and persistence that they have shown during the preseason and transfer it into their regular season performance.

The Grizzlies will play their season opener Wednesday night against the Atlanta Hawks at the FedEx Forum in Memphis.

Another team, The Tennessee Titans have been playing well, also. Sunday afternoon, the team defeated the Philadelphia Eagles with 37-19 victory. What, at first, seemed like a rocky game for Tennessee ended up being a night of franchise history.

The team scored 27 points in the fourth quarter alone, and played phenomenally against the Dallas Cowboys on October ninth.

I'm looking forward to more wins leading up to January for the Titans as well as the first regular season win for the Grizzlies.

Grizzlies start their tenth season off right

article by:stacia_doss.
The Memphis Grizzlies defeated the Indiana Pacers Wednesday night with a close 89-87 victory for their first preseason opener at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tennessee.

Memphis was led by forward Rudy Gay with 12 points, while center Marc Gasol helped with nine rebounds.

Center Roy Hibbert guided Indiana with 18 points and ten rebounds, but the team efforts just were not enough for a Pacers win last night.

The Grizzlies will hit the road to Atlanta to face the Hawks Thursday night. The Pacers will try to earn their first preseason win at home as they prepare to face the Orlando Magic on Friday.

Click here for the complete box score of Wednesday night's game.

Memphis Grizzlies..Bright future?

written by: stacia_doss.

I must admit that I haven't been following the Summer league progression of the Memphis Grizzlies. At first, I didn't want to, honestly. But I feel like I finally understand their draft choices and recent acquirement of players. I definitely think this young team will be a better and stronger one than it was this past season.

For the 2009-2010 season, the team performed very well. Coach (Lionel) Hollins did a great job with them, but a large part of what hurt the team was the lack of points from the bench. Also, getting the flow of chemistry between players just right after the dramatic and short Iverson era. This explains why the team has recently signed a number of guards.

The newest signee is Tony Allen, former Boston Celtics guard. He joins other new players Greivis Vasquez and Xavier Henry with hopes to lead Memphis a step further this season. I hope that with the recent additions, the players will take the Grizzlies franchise into the playoffs.

I see all the potential and I have faith in them.=)

Check out what Pete Pranica had to say, so far, about the Summer league with Memphis here.

November brings unanticipated victories for Memphis

written by:stacia_doss.
The city of Memphis' top basketball teams once yielded pretty low expectations for wins from some residents--but the past month has brought the unexpected from both the Grizzlies and Tigers.

After the Memphis Tigers suffered the loss of Coach John Calipari to the University of Kentucky last spring, it seemed like at least three-fourths of the blues city had the blues. Many wrote the team off as having little to no chance of being as good as it was under Calipari's leadership, but things changed.

The Memphis Grizzlies started the NBA preseason with some players the team hoped would help gain more wins--like veteran guard Allen Iverson and rookies Hasheem Thabeet and DeMarre Carroll. But as time went on the team was less than victorious, with only one home win, and back to back losses on the road--and Iverson decided he did not want to be a part of the team.

Both Memphis team fans were disappointed and losing hope, if hope was existent.

Coach Josh Pastner recruited the best he could for the 09-10 season, leaving the team with a couple of new recruits, a few veterans, and even some walk-ons. There was no doubt that this was a team transformed from its previous season. The team didn't even rank in the top 25 power teams of the NCAA, but the team said differently.

On November 17, the Tigers competed against the No.1 ranked Kansas Jayhawks. Numerous mistakes were made by Memphis, yet the game was at a constant neck and neck score. At the end of the game, a 55-57 score with Kansas leading, the Tigers went for a long three and lost the game. It was a loss, or was it?

Memphis guard Elliot Williams said "The message we sent is that nobody is going to run over us." I guess surprised Memphians and NCAA fans as a whole could say the same. Pastner has already recruited some of the top players in the nation for the '10-'11 season...time will tell what else is in store.

Since releasing Iverson from his contact, the Grizzlies team has improved, winning four of its last five games. The team also added former Indiana Pacer-Jamaal Tinsley to its roster during the month of November. Will the victories continue with the recent team alterations?