Grizzlies C Marc Gasol led the way for a series win over Portland, recording his third straight game with at least 20 points.
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The Memphis Grizzlies defeated the Portland Trailblazers 99-93 in Game 5 of the first round of the playoffs to advance to the Western Conference Semi-Finals against the Golden State Warriors.
The Grizzlies got off to an incredibly fast start to the game, keeping the Trailblazers scoreless for the first several minutes and claiming an 8-0 lead and later a 13-2 lead early in the quarter.
Despite the major deficit, Portland would overcome the major deficit thanks to an incredible performance by bench player C. J. McCollum, who recorded a game-best 33 points and seven successful 3-point shots – which accounted for more than half of the team’s total of 13.
In the second half the Trailblazers and Grizzlies would swap multiple leads thanks to McCollum and a 10-point performance by Memphis bench player Jeff Green.
With the Grizzlies building a late lead, Jeff Green allowed Memphis to take a commanding lead late with a layup that drew a Portland foul.
But the nail in the coffin for Portland in the game and for their season was Memphis G Nick Calathes. After an extremely quiet night for the Memphis guard, Calathes would seal the win with a long 2-point shot to give the Grizzlies an 11-point lead with less than two minutes left to play.
Though he didn’t have many highlights, the star of the game was Memphis C Marc Gasol, who recorded his first double-double of the playoffs and his third straight game with at least 20 points in the series. Gasol led the team with 26 points without a single 3-point attempt and recorded 14 rebounds – the most by any Grizzlies player in the series. The Grizzlies on the whole were terrible at making 3-pointers in the game – going just 1-of-14 with the bench players going a combined 0-for-9.
The Grizzlies will now head way out west to face the No. 1 Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Semi-Finals. The Warriors are coming off a 4-game sweep of the New Orleans Pelicans in which they averaged over 106 points – the Grizzlies only crossed that plane once during their series against the Trailblazers.
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