Memphis Grizzlies Season Rides on Mike Conley's Return vs. Golden State Warriors

The Golden State Warriors toyed with the opposition in a 101-86 Game 1 win on Sunday, outshooting, out-passing and out-defending the gritty Memphis Grizzlies with relative ease.

Memphis will be in for more of the same if injured point guard Mike Conley can't make it back onto the floor in a hurry.

Conley suffered multiple facial fractures in the Grizzlies' first-round series against the Portland Trail Blazers, and his return date remains uncertain. Sporting a mask, he warmed up before Game 1, as NBA.com's Scott Howard-Cooper noted:

He didn't end up playing, but during an in-game interview, he told ESPN's Doris Burke that he hoped to play in Game 2.

Game 1 proved just how badly Memphis needed him.

Golden State did to Memphis what it did to just about everyone else during a 67-win regular season: The Warriors whipped the ball around on offense, generated piles of open threes and played stout defense on the other end. And, just as they did so many times during the year, the Dubs made their early statement, built a double-digit lead and nursed the advantage down the stretch, sure of their victory and no longer threatened.

For a sense of how the Warriors played and how they feel about their chances these days, just note the adjectives from their postgame comments, per the team's official Twitter account:

Comfortable, composed, ready and fun. That's about right.

Stephen Curry led all scorers with 22 points, tossing in seven assists, four steals, four made triples and two rebounds for show.

Draymond Green buried a trio of treys in the first quarter, working himself into a frothing frenzy and signaling to anyone who had watched more than a handful of Warriors games this year that there was no way the Dubs were going to lose.

When Green hits threes, Golden State cannot be defended. That's not an exaggeration, by the way. In the 19 games during the regular season that Green hit at least three triples, Golden State won 17 times, per Basketball-Reference.com. Against Memphis, his early barrage opened up the floor, created space for teammates and helped build a lead big enough to make his subsequent foul trouble inconsequential.

Memphis' defense simply didn't appear to bother the Warriors in Game 1, as they shot 50.6 percent from the field and 46.4 percent on 28 long-range attempts.

That latter stat was the least surprising of all. Memphis ranked 11th in the league in three-point attempts allowed per game this season, per NBA.com. Against the most accurate long-range-shooting squad in the Association, that's a problem.

Especially when you throw in the fact that the Grizzlies don't have the long-distance bombers to fire back. During the regular season, Memphis made 423 three-pointers.

Curry and Klay Thompson combined for 525.

In Game 1, Curry and Thompson's six made triples doubled the Grizzlies' team total of three.

Now, it's crazy to think Conley's return (whenever it comes) will restore balance to the lopsided three-point battle. But it could go a long way toward evening out the series.

Without its starting point guard, Memphis was forced to rely on Nick Calathes and Beno Udrih at the 1.

Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

Calathes played physical defense on Curry, but he was such a non-threat on offense that the Warriors could simply ignore him and pack the middle with rangy help defenders. Udrih posed a bigger scoring threat, but Curry got wherever he wanted on offense against him.

That trade-off is one the Grizzlies don't have to make if Conley is available. And at the very least, Calathes and Udrih would see more of their minutes against Golden State's second unit, which would help minimize the damage their respective limitations cause.

Conley is the cure for much of what ailed Memphis in Game 1.

He's a great backcourt defender who also led the team with 107 three-point makes on the season. With him on the floor, perhaps Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph (combined 41 points on 14-of-25 shooting in Game 1) wouldn't have felt so alone in the scoring column.

Not only that, but Conley is instrumental to the Grizzlies' overall scheme on D, as Bleacher Report's Jared Dubin explained:

Of course, even if Conley were to return for Game 2, we can't assume he'll be close to fully healthy. Even before his facial injury, he was playing with a sore right foot. With Conley literally hurting from head to toe, it would be borderline cruel to throw him out there against Curry.

Viewed that way, it seems the Grizz don't have much hope against Golden State regardless of Conley's status, as B/R's Andy Bailey observed:

It's possible Memphis came to grips with that fact during the fourth quarter of Game 1, as the away team showed some uncharacteristic quit, per Mike Prada of SB Nation:

Credit Grizzlies head coach Dave Joerger for doing what he could to plug holes. He went to larger lineups that didn't feature a point guard more than once, leaned on Gasol as an offensive facilitator and even put Jeff Green on Curry a few times in the second half.

Expect to see the Grizzlies explore more point-guard-free play if Conley can't make a miraculous recovery. Doing so will sacrifice playmaking options, and it will still result in at least two players (likely Tony Allen and Green) whom the Warriors can mostly ignore defensively.

But that tactic might be just quirky enough to give the Warriors a few more problems than the Grizzlies' conventional lineups did in Game 1.

And besides, there's really just one adjustment Joerger could make that would assure a competitive series, per Grantland's Jason Concepcion:

That Joerger is so clearly searching for alternative options may say something about Memphis' confidence, or lack thereof, in a Conley comeback. These outside-the-box ideas make it seem like Joerger is looking for a series-long solution, which could mean he's not expecting Conley back at all.

Until we learn more about Conley's status ahead of Game 2, we simply can't be sure.

What we know for certain, though, is that the Grizzlies need their point guard in order to avoid a short series against a seemingly unbeatable opponent.