Without Mike Conley in this series for the Memphis Grizzlies, we're unlikely to see them play the way we saw throughout most of the first three games against the Portland Trail Blazers. We should be honest about this though; even with Mike Conley, the Grizzlies would be in trouble against the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors didn't dominate in the first round against the New Orleans Pelicans, but they still swept them and looked like they were rounding into form in the final game.
In Game 1 against the Warriors, the Grizzlies sans Conley needed a special effort from everybody on the team and an off night from everybody on the Warriors in order to pull off the rare road victory at Oracle Arena. That didn't happen. The Warriors built up their lead early and managed to endure whenever the Grizzlies were hanging around. Eventually, the dam broke and the Warriors' offense and defense reigned supreme in their 101-86 victory.
Here's what we learned from Warriors-Grizzlies Game 1:
1. THE BACKCOURT OF THE WARRIORS IS ALMOST UNFAIR
The Warriors' greatest strength is obviously Stephen Curry. I don't think we're reinventing the analysis game by stating the obvious here. He changes everything in a way we've rarely seen, just because teams are panicked to get a body in front of him by the time he hits half court. With the Grizzlies having Tony Allen at their disposal but not Conley (who is a fantastic defender), it's so much tougher to dedicate the necessary defensive attention to Curry without leaving Klay Thompson and the other supporting players free to do damage.
That's exactly what seemed to happen in the first game of this series. Curry set the tone early with 12 points on eight shots to go with five assists. He was whipping the ball around as he was testing the resistance of the Grizzlies' defense early. And the resistance was solid at first but something he knew could be worn down. That's the beauty of having him available for 35-40 minutes in a playoff game; eventually the floodgates open and the points pour through.
In the second half, Curry wasn't as accurate with his shooting (10 points on 10 shots) but he was the focus of the Grizzlies' defense. Allen tried to hawk the ball whenever he did or didn't have it in his possession. He chased him around. Memphis even tried throwing Jeff Green on him to try to bother him with his length. But there were only so many times they could get a "favorable" or really a less than apocalyptic match-up in trying to defend Curry.
Often, the swarming him didn't even seem to matter because he'd just shake free.
BANG! Curry drills another three to put the @warriors up 20! #NBARapidReplay http://t.co/zZjxlR2rc4
— NBA (@NBA) May 3, 2015It's that kind of attention that helps Thompson get loose as well. Klay had 18 points on 8-of-16 from the field (2-of-5 from 3 and zero free throws) to go along with six assists. This is the big difference between Thompson under Steve Kerr and Thompson in last year's system. He's happy to make the extra pass now and can end up having big contributions with assists.
Klay had 12 of his 18 in the second half when the Warriors put the game away. If Conley doesn't come back soon and can't be the defensive player we know him to be, how do they even pretend to be able to slow down this backcourt?
2. THIS TEAM WITHOUT MIKE CONLEY JUST ISN'T THE SAME
It's not only a defensive thing with the Grizzlies sans Conley, although that's a big downgrade from being able to use a great defensive point guard that can navigate his way through screens quite well. Offensively, this team suffers too. Conley has a great two-man game that he works with Marc Gasol and the threat of Nick Calathes or Beno Udrih just isn't the same. The Grizzlies were able to hang with the Warriors for a while in the first half, but the second half of this game is where you really saw the Warriors' great defense wear down the Grizzlies' offense.
The final 24 minutes yielded just 34 points total from Memphis. Without Conley to offer up dribble penetration and getting the defense to move side-to-side with the way he manages possessions, it makes Memphis have to figure out how to score against a set Warriors' defense. The Warriors were the best defensive team in the NBA this season, so this is a tough game plan to execute even with Conley. Without him? You're looking at more second half performances like the 38.2 percent from the field and a 10:9 assist-to-turnover ratio like we saw from Memphis in Game 1.
3. WHO WILL BE THE FIRST TEAM TO WIN A GAME AT ORACLE ARENA IN THE PLAYOFFS?
It's no secret by now that the Warriors were the best home team in the NBA (39-2) and had a dominating performance just about every night there. The San Antonio Spurs were the second best home team in the NBA this season in terms of net rating. They beat opponents at home by 10.4 points per 100 possessions while compiling a 33-8 record. The Atlanta Hawks had a better record at home (35-6) but they had a slightly worse net rating of plus-9.1 points. How much better were the Warriors at home?
They outscored teams at Oracle Arena by 16.2 points per 100 possessions this season. That's some historic stuff. Their two losses at home came in November to the Spurs and in January to the Chicago Bulls in overtime. Other than that, they finished the season winning 18 straight home games and have extended that to 21 in the first five games of the playoffs. They only had 13 of their 39 home wins come by single digits in the regular season. Three of those came in the final three home games of the season when they were resting up. Granted, it's the playoffs now and the opponents get tougher, but when are they going to lose at home again?
Game 2 is Tuesday in Oakland as the Warriors keep that winning streak at Oracle Arena going.
SERIES SCHEDULE, RESULTS
Game 1 -- Sun May 3
Golden State 101, Memphis 86 -- Warriors lead series 1-0
Game 2 -- Tue May 5
Memphis at Golden State, 10:30 p.m. ET (TNT)
Game 3 -- Sat May 9
Golden State at Memphis, 8 p.m. ET (ABC)
Game 4 -- Mon May 11
Golden State at Memphis, 9:30 p.m. ET (TNT)
Game 5 * Wed May 13
Memphis at Golden State TBD
Game 6 * Fri May 15
Golden State at Memphis TBD
Game 7 * Sun May 17
Memphis at Golden State TBD
