Former Magic Men Courtney Lee, Carter, Udrih Fighting for Memphis
Courtney Lee, Vince Carter and Beno Udrih are all playing valuable roles for the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2015 postseason.
The Orlando Magic have surrendered a couple good shooting guards as the team tried to fight for contention and, eventually, enter a rebuild. No matter how they left Orlando, these three — Courtney Lee, Vince Carter and Beno Udrih — are now thriving for the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2015 postseason.
Lee, his backup Carter, and backup point guard Udrih are all relied upon members of the contending Grizzlies’ Grit ‘N’ Grind.
It is of course well understood teams cannot keep veterans around necessarily while going into a rebuild mode.
The Magic at one point harbored promising rookie Courtney Lee, who was dealt for Vince Carter. Both now play for the Grizzlies. Along with that tandem is former backup point guard Beno Udrih, who proved instrumental in keeping the Grizzlies afloat while Mike Conley was recovering from facial fracture.
Udrih hit a jumper at the end of the first half in Game Two that put the Grizzlies up 11 and gave them great momentum against the top-seeded Warriors. The Grizzlies went on to hang on and win 97-90 to tie up the series 1-1.
Udrih shot just two of eight from the floor, but had five rebounds, ;two assists and two steals, with just one turnover in 21 minutes. he found other ways to contribute in an important win.
In the Game One loss, he shot three of seven from the floor, but was n;ot overly effective in his 19 minutes as the Warriors held a big edge most of the night and got the shots they wanted.
Udrih is not a poor defender, but even good defenders find themselves at odds with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, who combined for 16 field goals, six of which were threes. Nick Calathes struggled badly, which made Udrih’s play imperative, but the Grizzlies just could not get it going in Game One with 15 turnovers a negative-2 difference on the glass, and 21 Warriors’ fast break points.
Udrih’s finest game of the postseason came in the 100-86 Game One victory over Portland when he scored 20 points in 24 minutes while coming up with seven rebounds and seven assists. Udrih topped double figures twice beyond that in the Portland series.
Vince Carter provided close to nothing in Game One against the Warriors, missing six of his seven shots and both of his threes.
Carter appeared in 66 games this season averaging 16.5 minutes a night, but he shot just 33 percent from the floor and averaged less than six points per game. His 3-point percentage in the postseason is 21.4, and he is hitting that point of decline where it has to be wondered how much longer the 38 year old will be around.
Carter was 33 when he arrived in Orlando and already hitting rapid decline, but at this point he is really only valuable as a spot scorer off the bench.
That role needs to be provided for the Grizzlies to win this series, however, because bench scoring has been problematic for Memphis.
Courtney Lee has played by far the best of the Magic trio (no coincidence, he is the youngest and entering what would be the prime of his career).
His defense has been exceptional, as it showed it had the potential to be in Orlando. Lee shot lights out in the first round series against Portland and he is hitting 58 percent from the floor and 50 percent from 3-point range on 2.6 attempts per game in the Playoffs.
Lee’s 15.7 points per game tower over his 10 from the regular season, and he is proving that he may have had that semi-star level of talent we suspected in Orlando. There is always the element of being a “prisoner of the moment,” but Lee has been in his prime and this may have been the breakthrough he’s needed to show that he can put the ball in the basket.
When he departed from Orlando, he struggled immensely in his sophomore season with the New Jersey Nets, as his 3-point percentage went from 40.4 as a rookie to 33.8. Leaving Dwight Howard has that effect.
This season, however, he returned to that mark of excellence, shooting better than 40 percent from three for the first time since his 2012 season with Houston.
Lee’s defense is absolutely essential in this series and having his henchmen Tony Allen and Mike Conley in top form is imperative against the Warriors’ multi-faceted attack.
Conley somehow triumphed with a comeback game for the ages in Game Two, but he was gimpy toward the end and will have to gut it out again for the Grizzlies to take the 2-1 edge on its homecourt Saturday night at 8 p.m. on ABC.