Memphis Grizzlies, currently sitting second in the Western Conference, faced off against the Washington Wizards last night on national television on TNT. The Wizards have been in a slight slump lately but they still are a playoff team and very competitive with their core of John Wall, Bradley Beal, Paul Pierce, Nene and Marcin Gortat.
Grizzlies, for whatever reason, didn’t see the contest against the Wizards in Washington as a game they should be concerned about, so the Grizz benched 4 of their starters. Mike Conley, Tony Allen, Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol all got to sit last night as relative unknowns got their chance to shine on a national television game.
Follow from J.Michael of CSN Washington.
“That’s how I see it,” said John Wall when asked if he felt Memphis disrespected them by trotting out a starting lineup of Beno Udrih, Courtney Lee, Jeff Green, JaMychal Green and Kosta Koufos. “They sit them, I don’t really know the reason why. We’re a team that’s on the rise and teams respect us now and then they don’t respect us. We just wanted to come out and play basketball the right way and get the win no matter what.”
While the Wizards did win, Wall has a point. It would be understandable if the Wizards were bottom feeders, fighting for a lottery spot, but they’re not, they’re fighting for playoff positioning.
The Grizzlies probably didn’t care much about their opponent when deciding to rest their key players. They were on the second night of a back-to-back and playing their seventh game in 10 days so a little rest was warranted for some of these guys. Plus, Mike Conley turned his ankle pretty badly against the Boston Celtics the night before.
If anything, this benching by the Grizzlies will fuel their next matchup for Wall and the Wizards when Washington visits Memphis on April 4th, when the road to the playoffs truly begins.
