Memphis Grizzlies Playoff Tickets

The Memphis Grizzlies haven’t been in the NBA for as long as many franchises, but have made their time in the league count, especially since coming to Memphis from Vancouver. The team has made many appearances in the NBA Playoffs, and they have been a strong piece of the Western Conference postseason picture for many years thanks to their consistent play and willingness to grind things out.

From 2011 to 2017, the Grizzlies made eight straight postseason appearances, a run of success that any team in the NBA would gladly sign up for. And their willingness to grind games out was very much a part of their identity, as those teams referred to their home arena, FedEx Forum as “The Grindhouse.” It was a testament to the fact that they wanted to play a tough, physical brand of basketball despite playing in an era where some of the game’s physicality had been rooted out.

Embodying the mentality of those Grizzlies teams were big men Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph. Randolph was an old-school big man, where he was undersized yet extremely tough. And Gasol was a more modern big, who could rebound the basketball but was great at getting the ball out of his hands to start a break and proficient at shooting the three as well. The fact that the offense ran through those two was a clear sign for opposing defenses that they were going to have to work hard for any stops they got.

The Grizzlies advanced past the first round of the playoffs several times during that stretch of success, including a trip to the Western Conference Finals in 2013 against the San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs became something of a rival to the Grizzlies as the teams squared off on multiple occasions during the run of repeated trips to the playoffs for Memphis. The Oklahoma City Thunder also fell into that category, with the Grizzlies having two conference semifinal series against OKC, going 1-1 in those series and nearly going 2-0 if not for dropping a seven-game series to the Thunder in 2011.