NBA Early Preview – Memphis Grizzlies at Cleveland Cavaliers

Memphis Grizzlies at Cleveland Cavaliers

The Memphis Grizzlies (21-4) continued their fantastic season this week by beating two title contenders: the San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors. On Sunday, they will land in Cleveland to meet the Cavaliers (14-10) at Quicken Loans Arena (4:30 p.m. Eastern).

The Grizzlies are a deep team that doesn’t rely on any one superstart. That said, Marc Gasol is the MVP of the squad, so far, averaging 19.8 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. But even when the big Spaniard has an off night, teammates Zach Randolph (16.4 points and 11.4 rebounds per game) and Mike Conley (17.6 points and 6.4 assists per game) are there to pick up the slack.

For the Cavs, the early part of the season has been about finding chemistry.  Cleveland is 14-10, but were smashed by the Atlanta Hawks, 127-98, at home in its last contest and has lost three of the last four, overall.

“If we continue to get better, every individual, if we continue to make strides every day, it’s who we have,” Lebron James said. “The guys in the locker room are who we have, and I think we can compete against anybody when we’re playing at our best. But it’s going to take us to maintain our focus every single day because we cannot afford to take a step backward, because a lot of teams are just better than us as far as chemistry, as far as the camaraderie they have over the years, and we don’t have that.”

With the Grizzlies playing the best basketball in the association and the Cavs still trying to coalesce, expect Memphis to win what should be a low scoring game.

(Photo credit: Keith Allison (Flickr) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.)