Clippers vs. Grizzlies: Memphis Will Learn from Epic Collapse

The Memphis Grizzlies had Game 1 of their playoff series against the Los Angeles Clippers in the bag. With a huge fourth quarter lead, they had every excuse to take their foot off the gas pedal.

But gee wiz, Grizzlies. Just because you have an excuse to take your foot off the gas doesn't mean that you should. Why risk it?

The Grizzlies learned their lesson the hard way in Game 1. The 24-point lead they had with just over nine minutes remaining in the game was slowly and steadily erased, and the Clippers ultimately won the game on two clutch free throws by Chris Paul.

It never should have come to that, obviously. The Grizzlies had the Clippers on the ground ready to fall victim to a killer blow, and the Grizzlies backed off.

Per the Elias Sports Bureau (via ESPN.com), Memphis is just the second team in NBA playoff history to choke away a game after starting the fourth quarter with a 21-point lead. The only other team to choke away a lead that large in the playoffs was the New Jersey Nets all the way back in 2002 against the Boston Celtics.

I well remember that game, and I also remember something else about that series that will be a little comforting for the Grizzlies to hear.

The Nets won that series, four games to two. The Celtics burned them with an epic comeback in a single game, but the Nets won because they were the better team.

That's the thing with these seven-games series. The better team is going to win nine times out of 10. And if the Grizzlies are looking for a silver lining from their loss on Sunday, it's that they were the better team for all but nine minutes and change, and it wasn't close. For the better part of the game, they owned the Clippers.

Nobody should have been surprised that the Grizzlies were playing so well, as they entered the postseason as one of those teams that no other team wanted to play. And for all their talent and hype, the Clippers entered the postseason as a true feast-or-famine team.

For much of the game, the Clippers were in famine mode. It wasn't until Memphis relaxed that the Clippers started to feast.

Instead of moping, the Grizzlies need to realize that they're the better team with better players, and that the only thing keeping them from winning this series is themselves. They got complacent, and they got burned.

The lesson learned? Don't get complacent. Only bad things can happen.

Make no mistake, this lesson will stick. The Grizzlies will remember that their energy allowed them to advance in the postseason last year, and they'll realize that they let that energy slip away in the fourth quarter.

They won't let it slip away again.