Marc Gasol shone especially in the Memphis Grizzlies 'offensive game and claimed his leadership status by leading them to the visitors' 90-98 victory over the Houston Rockets in an undefeated team bout of the Southwest Division.
Gasol's big offensive performance, which had 26 points, allowed the Grizzlies to overcome a 12 points deficit (65-53) with 7:56 remaining in the third quarter. The Spanish international was unstoppable in both the indoor and outdoor games and was always a nightmare for the defense of the Rockets, who nevertheless dominated the majority of the game until in the final stretch they came down and with three minutes to play forced the tie to 88-88 to then complete streak of 2-20 that decided the triumph.
As soon as the tie came, there was a fight between the squad James Harden and Mario Chalmers, of the Grizzlies, that did not happen more after the intervention of the referees, who after reviewing the actions decided to penalize with technical faults both players and staff to the Rockets star.
The action completely broke the concentration of the Rockets, who were only able to score two points by failing everything they threw to basket. The forward James Ennis III was in charge of completing three-point play for the 88-91 quarterback and center Clint Capela made a mate (90-91) that would be the last two goals scored by the Rockets in the game, while the base Mike Conley scored triple (90-94) demolisher.
Gasol always maintained a great pace and surpassed both the defense that the tall men put him the coach of the Rockets, Mike D'Antoni with Capela and Brazilian pivot Nené Hilario, as when he placed players lower and faster. Along with Gasol, four other players, including three starters, with Conley leading the way, had double-digit numbers. The win gave the Grizzlies a perfect 3-0 record for the first time since the 2014-15 season when they won six straight wins.
While the Rockets (3-1), who continued without injured star base Chris Paul, had Eric Gordon, last season's NBA Player of the Year award winner, the top scorer by scoring 27 points 5 of 15 3-pointers, and 6 of 7 from the lineup, as well as handing out seven assists and capturing four rebounds. Harden did not have his best scorer night and although he added 22 goals, he missed 12 of 20 field shots, including 6 of 8 3-pointers, and scored 4 of 8 from the lineup.
The Rockets' starter, who hours before the game received the NBA Player of the Week award, his 14th career finish since joining the Houston (2012) team, also made eight assists, captured five rebounds and had seven ball losses that prevented him from being a winning factor. Hilario played 16 minutes as a reserve and added nine points after scoring 4 of 6 field shots and 1-1 from the lineup, grabbing three rebounds and assisting.
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