In the first quarter, only Gasol Jr. among the Grizzlies' starting five shot above 40%. The other four were all horribly inefficient on offense, and even Gasol Jr., the only one above 40%, had taken very few shots.
Under normal circumstances, with the Grizzlies' offense this inefficient, they should have been grateful not to be trailing the Bobcats by double digits.
Yet instead of falling behind by double digits, the Grizzlies led the Bobcats by two. All because of Link, who had gone 4-for-5 in the first quarter.
Stephen Jackson sat on the bench, breathing heavily. In the first quarter, Bobcats head coach Paul Silas had made the 33-year-old veteran play all twelve minutes.
Paul Silas was not some coach obsessed with overworking his starters; not every coach had Thibodeau's particular fixation. But there had been no choice in the first quarter. If he had taken Stephen Jackson off the floor, the Bobcats would probably have been trailing by even more.
Fortunately, a quarter of basketball was only twelve minutes, and the Bobcats had a chance to catch their breath. If the NBA played halves like the NCAA, Paul Silas was truly afraid the game would have been blown wide open already.
"We're only down two points. Settle down!" Silas shouted. As an experienced coach, he knew the team's top priority now was to stabilize morale.
If the players' emotions fell apart, the game would fall apart too.
"We still have a chance. We can't abandon our plan just because we're temporarily behind. Keep up the physical play in the second quarter, and pick up the offensive pace when appropriate. I'm sure you can all see how exhausted the Grizzlies are. Keep wearing them down and make their offensive efficiency keep dropping!" Silas had always believed in one principle: hammer