C’s tough defense give Memphis some “blues”

nbc sports Just over five minutes into Q2 (6:53), Memphis wing Dillon Brooks smoothly drilled a deep trey to give his team a 42-35 edge in a game that had already seen four lead changes and half-a-dozen ties. It was the Grizzlies’ fifth consecutive converted possession … there would be but one more (right!) before halftime. (Memphis would not again convert back-to-back possessions until the 2:20 mark of Q3, by which point they were trailing by 30!)

Worthy of note, perhaps, is that at the first stoppage in play (6:09) after that Brooks’ Q2 three-pointer, Marcus Smart entered the game and would be replaced just over a minute before intermission. Memphis went scoreless during that five-minute…