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Spurs visit Grizzlies in possible playoff preview

Mar 27, 2011 - 2:46 PM (Sports Network) - The schedule makers aren't making things easy on the playoff-hopeful Memphis Grizzlies. Two days after batting the Eastern Conference's best team, the Chicago Bulls, Memphis will do battle with the best that the West has to offer, the San Antonio Spurs, in a possible first round playoff preview.

The Grizzlies hung in Friday but MVP candidate Derrick Rose scored 24 points and recorded a key three-point play with 10.8 seconds remaining, as the Bulls won their 14th straight game at home with a 99-96 victory over Memphis at the United Center.

Zach Randolph finished with 16 points for the Grizzlies, who had a three-game winning streak snapped. Marc Gasol chipped in with 14 points and 11 rebounds.

Tony Allen and Mike Conley added 13 and 12 points, respectively, for Memphis, which holds the eighth and final playoff spot in the West and is 1 1/2 games ahead of Houston.

"It was a back-and-forth game," Conley said. "We left everything we had out there."

To make matters worse, the setback came just hours after the Grizzlies learned that star forward Rudy Gay, out since Feb. 15, will undergo season-ending surgery to repair his partially dislocated left shoulder. Memphis has persevered since losing its best player, compiling a 9-7 make since Gay was injured.

The Spurs, meanwhile, are in the midst of a rare losing streak after falling to Portland, 98-96, in the Pacific Northwest. Nicolas Batum's alley-oop tip-in at the buzzer proved to be the difference in that one.

Portland trailed by six points, 96-90, with just over a minute to play, but Andre Miller put in a layup and, after misses at both ends, he stripped the ball from Tony Parker and put in a layup with 30.5 seconds to play. Manu Ginobili then lost the ball and Batum was fouled with 0.9 seconds to play, making both free throws to tie the game.

The Spurs' Steve Novak threw the ball out of bounds, giving Portland a chance for the win and the team took advantage as Miller sent up a pass to the rim and Batum put it home for the victory.

"Perfect timing," Blazers head coach Nate McMillan said. "I thought Miller made the right pass and put it right in front of the rim and all Nic had to do was catch it an put it in the hole."

Ginobili had 21 points and seven assists and Parker had 15 points, but eight turnovers as the Spurs lost back-to-back games for the first time since dropping two in a row at New York and Boston on January 4-5. San Antonio hasn't lost three in a row all season but is currently without its leader, veteran big man Tim Duncan, who is sidelined with a sprained left ankle.

The Spurs still holds a five-game lead over the Lakers for the top spot in the Western Conference and a six-game lead over Dallas for the top spot in the Southwest Division.

"Lots of things happen that help you win and help you lose," San Antonio head coach Gregg Popovich said. "There are a lot of things in games that happen, an down the stretch is the most important time."

If the regular season ended today, the Spurs, who haven't lost three in a row since Jan. 20-25, 2010 and have taken two of three from the Grizz this season, would face Memphis in the West quarterfinals.