NBA

What Happened Last Night: Miami Notches 24th Win In 27-Point Comeback, Grizzlies Sneak By Thunder In OT

by Dylan Murphy | 10:40 am, March 21st, 2013

Didn’t watch sports on TV last night? On some level, we get it: resting up for college basketball all day today, eh?

Miami wins 24th in a row, somehow.

LeBron James returned to Cleveland last night for the 367th time, and apparently this will continue to be a thing until ~~he signs with the Cavs after next season~~ he retires. You might remember that Cleveland has been terrible since James left – though they managed to draft Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson and Dion Waiters in the top 4 of the last two NBA Drafts, they’re nowhere near the top of the East. In fact, they’re at the bottom. And, without Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters last night, it appeared Miami would steamroll their way to a 24th victory in a row.

Then the game happened. With 7:44 remaining in the 3rd quarter, Miami trailed 67-40. No one really knew what was going on. LeBron, however, wasn’t going to roll over: in the 4th quarter, his 14 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals propelled a Miami comeback and an eventual 98-95 victory – including two free throws with 4.7 seconds left to push the lead to three points. Oh, and he had a triple-double for the game, too.

A Marc Gasol tip-in pushed Memphis past Oklahoma City.

This game didn’t feature the usual offensive explosion to which we’ve become accustomed from OKC: the final in this one was 90-89, after an overtime period, as the Grizzlies slid past the Thunder on a last-second Marc Gasol tip-in. Both teams shot poorly from the field – 36% for OKC, and 35.7% for Memphis – and struggled to establish any sort of offensive rhythm. But OKC still led at the end of regulation, and it took a Jerryd Bayless three-pointer with 3.7 seconds left to push the game to an extra period. Then in overtime, Gasol managed to tip in Zach Randolph’s miss from seven feet to put the Grizzlies up one with 0.9 seconds remaining. When Westbrook, whose layup with 13.6 seconds remaining in OT put OKC up 89-88, missed a half-court heave as time expired, Memphis had somehow snuck away with a victory.

March Madness starts today. Join our bracket group.

We’re doing one of those things where you fill out a bracket, we fill out a bracket, and we all start rooting for New Mexico State or Belmont or whomever because investing yourself in mediocre basketball teams is a thing to do this time of year. Anyway, if you care to compete against us, the SportsGrid bracket masters, click here. We’ll mail you our collective dignity if you win. How’s that for a prize?!?

Photo via

Go Grizz

On the Memphis – OKC game –
Clearly the writer didn’t watch the game (or they really like OKC) because the Grizzlies led the game until the 2nd half…..the largest lead by OKC for the game was less than 10, at that.
Memphis came out of the gate strong – had some questionable foul calls – Westbrook should have been kicked out of the game with a second technical in the first three minutes, etc., etc. Memphis at one time had about 5 offensive fouls called in a row-lame. Tony Allen only got to play about 8 minutes in the first half because of “foul” trouble.
Memphis didn’t SNEAK by anybody – They led for 85% of the game, at least. (if not more)