Herrington: Marcus Smart, Brandon Clarke showing improved play amid changing roles
Could the improved play of Brandon Clarke, left, and Marcus Smart, right, be the reason the Grizzlies have a six-game winning streak? (Brandon Dill/AP Photo file)
Chris Herrington
Chris Herrington has covered the Memphis Grizzlies, in one way or another, since the franchise’s second season in Memphis, while also writing about music, movies, food and civic life. As far as he knows, he’s the only member of the Professional Basketball Writers Association who is also a member of a film critics group and has also voted in national music critic polls for Rolling Stone and the Village Voice (RIP). He and his wife have two kids and, for reasons that sometimes elude him, three dogs.
A moment from a winning streak: The Grizzlies are up eight in the fourth quarter on Sunday against the Indiana Pacers. They’ve come back from a 17-point deficit and are trying to put the game away. Marcus Smart catches the ball on the move along the baseline — what’s called a “go-and-catch” in recent coach-speak parlance — but two defenders converge on him at the rim.
He spies Brandon Clarke cutting from the opposite corner, fakes a direct pass to him and then wraps a bounce pass behind his back, which Clarke flushes with two hands. Ten-point lead.
Another, Friday night against the Pistons: The Grizzlies are up two points in the second quarter as Smart dribbles up the right side of the court. Clarke comes over to set a pick and Smart takes a sharp dribble to the left, into the paint. Clarke mostly slips the screen and turns toward the rim, where Smart sails a finger-roll-style pass in his direction.
Even with Pistons center Jalen Duren drifting back to contest, Clarke leaps over him to control the pass with one hand, banking it in and drawing the foul.
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