Justin Holiday scored 15 points in the first four minutes of this game against the Warriors. 18 in the first quarter, 20 in the first half, and 22 for the game. Just typing that out, it’s clear how much his scoring slowed down as the game went along. I was smart enough, this time, not to get overly excited about a potential monster performance in the making. At the same time, I thought that if there was any time for Holiday to score 40, it would be during the last night of the season, against Golden State.
People don’t remember, but a few years ago, the first year the Warriors became really good, Holiday was on their team. You know what that means: REVENGE GAME. And in the first quarter, revenge was exactly what was being served to every single Warriors player, from Stephen Curry all the way down to Marcus Derrickson. Holiday didn’t even need to continue in the second half; the Grizzlies had dominated so thoroughly that he could sit back and watch his henchman Jevon Carter bury them under yet more threes.
And so ends another exciting season of Grizzlies basketball, with a huge win against the second best team in the league. That’s the kind of win that can sustain fans through an entire offseason. Who cares if the franchise has no real direction, no coach (sorry J.B. Bickerstaff, this wasn’t enough to save your job), and no real core players besides maybe Jaren Jackson?