The Trail Blazers really, really want to knock off the Grizzlies in the NBA Playoffs and advance to the next round. They lost to Memphis in all four of their regular-season matchups, so they'd like nothing more than to send them home packing this season. And in order to try and do it, they've come up with a list of things that they're going to need to do during their first round series with the Grizzlies. Those things include:
- "We will be together."
- "Win the dog fight."
- "We will play as a team and outwork Memphis each and every night."
- "We are better when we come to play."
- "We don't lose to Spanish players."
- "Staying together through adversity."
Wait, what was that? No, no. Not the last one. The one before that. "We don't lose to Spanish players" Yes, that.
Apparently, the Blazers are tired of getting shredded by Marc Gasol. So they've made it their mission not to let him beat them during the series—and have even gone as far as to make a note of how they don't want to lose to a Spanish guy.
So far, they're not doing very good at sticking to that guideline. Gasol scored 15 points, grabbed 11 rebounds, and recorded seven assists in Game 1 of the series, a 100-86 Grizzlies win. And Blazers head coach Terry Stotts said people shouldn't look too deep into the "Spanish players" comment:
But really, how can you not? Something tells us Memphis is going to come out even more motivated in Game 2.
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[via SLAM]
