The day before the Grizzlies crushed the Trail Blazers, the Golden State Warriors had already finished their third showdown with the Houston Rockets.
Prior to that, the Rockets had fallen behind the Warriors 0-2.
The Howard-Harden duo had no ability whatsoever to fight back against the Golden State Warriors. When Game 3 returned to Toyota Center, people had hoped that the third-seeded Rockets in the West could mount a desperate counterattack at home.
Instead, they played even worse at home than they had on the road.
The Rockets looked as though they were sleepwalking all game long, completely out of sorts. Their shooting percentage in the first half was just 29.3%, and that dreadful accuracy left them trailing by 25 points at halftime. Their 18 points in the first quarter and 37 points by halftime were both playoff lows in Rockets history.
In the second half, the Warriors took whatever they wanted. Stephen Curry ultimately exploded for 40 points, 7 assists, and 5 rebounds, leading the Warriors to a 115-80 rout of the Rockets!
It was Curry's first 40-plus-point game of the Western Conference semifinals, and his second of this year's playoffs.
The last player to score in the playoffs as easily as slicing through melons and vegetables had been Link.
Besides his 40 points in this game, Curry had put up 34 and 33 points in the first two games, respectively.
Compared to Link, who had been taking it easy on the offensive end, Curry looked far more like an MVP-caliber player.
Thus, after the Grizzlies eliminated the Trail Blazers the next day, amid all the congratulations and cheers, Green and Bogut started making snide remarks again.
"Link's highest-scoring game in four matches was only 26 points... I know playoff performance has nothing to do with judging the MVP.