The Grizzlies and Warriors are fighting for the future of the NBA

The best basketball going on right now is between the Golden State Warriors and Memphis Grizzlies. A seeming culmination of a year of excellent play in the Western Conference, the teams’ opposing styles have sparked a lot of debate about the state of the game.

The Warriors’ 67-win campaign has pointed the way for the frontier of the league, taking a “pace-and-space” philosophy to its natural endpoint. It’s not so hard to do that when you’ve got Steph Curry and Klay Thompson; the Splash Brothers are, perhaps, the best shooting backcourt in the history of the sport. Both players’ ability to shoot their team to victory from beyond the arc has taken the Warriors offense to staggering heights. Curry’s creativity with the ball, to boot, has made them downright historical.

They mostly didn’t rack up their wowing efficiency marks against defenses as good as that of the Grizzlies, though. Memphis’ relentless, hyper-smart defense on Golden State has taken away both the pace and the space from the Warriors. Tony Allen, Mike Conley and Courtney Lee have hassled Curry and Thompson all series long, frazzling the duo to an uncharacteristic 14-of-46 mark from deep, or just 30 percent.

Golden State trails 2-1 in the series, and in the eyes of many analysts, they’re fighting for more than just a berth in the Western Conference Finals. Their offense, while amazing all season long, looks challenged as it faces the task of winning playoff games without a go-to option in the post. Reviving David Lee off the end of the bench might be an option for variety inside, and a less predictable perimeter attack. Or, Steph and Klay might just snap out of their slump, and start draining shots under greater duress than what they’re used to.

Either way it turns out, the winner of this series will carry the flag for their style, and potentially point the way toward lasting strategic trends. It’s pace and space versus grit and grind.

— John Wilmes

@johnwilmesNBA