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The Thunder hit Memphis with quite a storm Sunday. Can the Grizzlies answer with one of their own tonight? The forecast is looking iffy. But Drew Hill and Chris Herrington are in Oklahoma City tonight to find out anyway as Memphis looks to bounce back from Sunday’s ugly 51-point loss in Game 1 of the first-round NBA playoff series. Hint: If the first go-round is any indication, it won’t be easy. “When Oklahoma City brought the Thunder,” Hill wrote after Sunday’s game, “the Memphis Grizzlies amounted to the family dog shaking on the bathroom floor.” Hill, Herrington and Geoff Calkins all were at FedExForum last Friday night as the Grizzlies beat Dallas in a play-in game to advance, and Hill and Herrington both weighed in between Games 1 and 2 — Hill on how the series will impact the franchise’s future, Herrington on Jaren Jackson Jr.’s struggles — of the best-of-seven series against the Thunder. “It’s past time for Jackson to prove he can be more in playoff basketball,” Herrington wrote. Following tonight’s Game 2, the series shifts to Memphis for Game 3 on Thursday (8:30 p.m.) and Game 4 on Saturday (2:30 p.m.). That happens with the city’s two minor-league pro sports franchises both on the road this week: The Triple-A Memphis Redbirds play a six-game series at Norfolk that opens tonight and runs through Sunday while the UFL’s 0-4 Memphis Showboats visit Birmingham on Friday night. Meanwhile, Parth Upadhyaya wrote Tuesday about what Coach Penny Hardaway had to say about guard PJ Haggerty’s recent entry into the NCAA transfer portal, John Martin chimed in on Memphis NIL matters amid Haggerty’s decision to explore other options and Frank Bonner II profiled new Memphis Tiger CJ Smith — a former Georgia and Purdue receiver — in advance of Saturday’s spring football game (3 p.m., Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium). Wrote Martin: “Memphis has always had a budget that’s allowed it to compete at a national level. But now it is fair to ask if that has fundamentally changed. For a university with a feisty sports tradition, it’s an existential threat.” In the preps world, John Varlas delivered a piece worth reading on Central High’s Miles Nesmith — merely the nation’s No. 1 triple-jumper after his state-record leap of 51 feet, 5 inches, set late last month at the Texas Relays. Here’s a look at some of The Daily Memphian sports staff’s top work from the week. — Deputy sports editor Tim Buckley
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By Drew Hill
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