Zach Randolph Apologized for Poor Game 1 Performance

The San Antonio Spurs gang-guarded Zach Randolph, limiting the Memphis Grizzlies’ big man to a Playoff low 2 points in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals. Mike Conley said that Z-Bo apologized to his teammates, but they weren’t trying to hear it as the blame belonged to everyone. Per the Commercial Appeal and USA Today: “‘I’ve got to be better. Like I told my teammates, I’ve got to be better for them,’ said Randolph, who was coming off 28-point, 14-rebound effort in his previous game when Memphis eliminated Oklahoma City last Wednesday night. Randolph couldn’t even dream of touching the basketball, let alone going for 20 and 10. The Spurs fronted him in the post and sent a defender at him from behind every time he touched the ball. They also made sure when Randolph caught the ball that he got it outside of the paint. ‘We got lucky that he missed a couple of easy ones, and he got a bit frustrated,’ Tim Duncan said. ‘He’s going to better in games to come, so we’ve got to be prepared for that. All in all, we were active. Boris (Diaw) did an excellent job wrestling around with him, kept him off the offensive boards, which he’s a monster on.’ […] ‘That was the best defense I’ve seen on the big fella in a long time; they did a great job,’ said the Grizzlies’ Mike Conley, who was outplayed in his point guard battle with the Spurs’ Tony Parker. ‘He tried to apologize (in the locker room), and we wouldn’t accept that. We said, ‘It’s not you; it’s all of us.’ He’s just saying that he’s going to do better, but we’ve all got to do better defensively, and offensively we’ve got to move the ball in order to get other guys open like Zach and play our game.'”