The Memphis Grizzlies led the New Orleans Pelicans by 29 points with 15 seconds left Friday night and went for one more basket anyway. Olivier-Maxence Prosper drove in for a layup with 7 seconds remaining, and Memphis won 142-111 at Smoothie King Center.The game counted in Emirates NBA Cup group play. A week earlier, Memphis had lost its Cup opener to the Oklahoma City Thunder by 31 points.Cam Spencer did a walk-off interview with the Grizzlies’ broadcast after the final horn. He was asked how weird it was to be up 29 with about 15 seconds left and still be trying to score.”It’s unique,” Spencer said. “Usually they go against like the unwritten rules of basketball, but I think everybody understands we’re trying to get the point differential for the Cup game. So score till the end.”Where Memphis Stands in West Group BOklahoma City beat Memphis 128-97 at FedExForum on Nov. 6. NBA.com’s Cup standings entering Friday had the Grizzlies at 0-1 with a minus-31 point differential, last in West Group B.Prosper’s layup made Friday’s margin 31 points as well. Memphis is 1-1 in group play, and its point differential is back to even.Minnesota (2-0, plus-32) and Oklahoma City (1-0, plus-31) sat ahead of the Grizzlies on Friday morning, and New Orleans dropped to 0-2 after losing its group opener at home to the Timberwolves. On NBA.com, head-to-head record is listed as the first tiebreaker and group-play point differential as the second.Memphis hosts the LA Clippers on Nov. 25 and finishes group play at Minnesota two nights later.Spencer on the Offense and the Second HalfThe interview opened with a question about the offense. Memphis shot 44-of-91 from the field, went 18-of-45 from 3-point range, and assisted on 36 baskets, 5 of them on Spencer passes.”Yeah, man. I think it all started with our defense, getting stops and rebounding and getting out in transition,” Spencer explained. “We got an easy early offense. We’re sharing the ball, getting into the paint pretty early, and I think that led to a lot of our great offense tonight.”New Orleans had 58 points at halftime and trailed by 12. Spencer was then asked what was better in the second half.”I think we were just more connected,” Spencer said. “Guys were in gap. Obviously Bey was hitting some shots. We made some adjustments on him, and just showing more bodies at Zion and some of their bigger threats on offense. We were just a little bit more connected on that end.”Saddiq Bey scored 30 and made 6 of his 9 3-point attempts. His teammates combined to go 1-of-22 from beyond the arc. Zion Williamson had 22 points and went 8-of-8 at the free-throw line, and the Pelicans scored 53 points after halftime.Spencer checked in with four other reserves at the 6:05 mark of the third quarter. Memphis outscored New Orleans 25-9 the rest of the period, and Spencer had 8 of those points on five free throws and a 3-pointer off a Ty Jerome pass.He finished with 14 points, all on 3-pointers and free throws. He went 3-of-5 from de
Content Source: Yahoo News
Image Credit: Getty Images
All rights to the news content and images belong to their respective copyright owners.