With the 2014-15 NBA Regular Season winding down and on Saturday the 18th of April 2015 the NBA Playoffs begins. With that in mind tonight we have an interesting match-up between the Memphis Grizzlies 54-26 (5th Western Conference-clinched playoff berth) playing the Golden State Warrior 65-15 (1st Western Conference-clinched top seed in conference) with the game being played at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California and tip-off this evening is at 10:40 PM ET. The opening odds has the Warriors favored in this game at – 7 ½ with the Over/under at 195 and -340 on the Money line with the comeback on the Grizzlies at +7 ½ and + 280 on the Money line.
The Grizzlies are a team that everybody’s No.2 in the Western Conference for the majority of the season, then injuries took at toll to several of their key players, and even being in the playoffs they could still lose in the standings before this 2014-15 seasons end.
Golden State in their last games have slowed down and been playing more players off the bench, and still are winning games, more so at home. A question for the fans, is will the Warriors beat the Grizzlies in this game and drop Memphis in the Standings?
If you Bet on NBA at an Offshore Betting site or SBG Global online and are a Grizzlies fan, you should be aware that presently your team is suffering from injuries, and it’s highly likely that their star Center Gasol is out for the rest of the season, as the team continues its fight for seeding in this western conference.
This past Saturday their Center Gasol injured his ankle in their game with the LA Clippers, a game they lost 86-84 to L.A. Two other players they were injured in that game were their stopper Allen and p-guard Conley and they are uncertain for this game with the Golden State Warriors. Gasol is the leading scorer for Memphis and will be missed dearly, as the team only scores 97.6 points per 100 possessions when he’s not in the game, and that ranks them very low in the league in those occasions.
More than likely he will be replaced by either Koufous or Green whom will not add to the Grizzlies offensive scoring much as combined in their games in March 2015 they only had 3 double-digit games. They badly need Conley to return to the roster if they are to have a chance of beating or staying in the game against the Warriors. They also need Udrih to pick up his scoring coming off the bench as in his last 2 games off the bench he shot 69% and scored 34 points on 15 of his 22 attempts, when he substituted for Conley in the games.
If you’re a Warriors fan your team just happens to have a record presently 65-15 which is the best in the entire NBA and they have locked up throughout the playoffs home-court advantage. Their coach corrected some media who expected him to play more of the bench now, and he stated he had no plans to bench starters in this game. However, that could be because lately his team has seem to struggle somewhat as the playoffs get set to start.
This is a game where the Warriors are trying to get back in their groove, and against the wounded Memphis team, even as they have made the playoffs, this may be the game for Golden State to shine an beat the Grizzlies as they did back on the 27th of March 2015 when they beat Memphis 107-84 as the splash brothers combined for 66 points in that game. Since Golden State has won some 16 consecutive games and that may be the reason the experts pick the Warriors to beat big time the Grizzlies tonight!