Killorn extricated himself and tried to avoid Price and P.K. Sub

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- For the second consecutive night, the Memphis Grizzlies slowed down Houston and walked away with a win. Mike Conley scored 17 points, Zach Randolph had 15 points and 17 rebounds, and the Grizzlies nearly held the Rockets to their lowest output of the season in a 99-81 victory Saturday. "We tried to slow them down," Randolph said. "They like to get up and down the court. They like to run and gun. We just tried to get back and play and get stops." The formula was similar to Friday, when the Grizzlies won 88-87 in Houston, but this time Memphis took control early. The Grizzlies held the Rockets to 37 per cent shooting and built the lead to as many as 27 points before both teams sent in reserves to finish the game. Courtney Lee also had 15 points and Kosta Koufos scored 14, hitting seven of his eight shots from the field. James Johnson added 12 points for Memphis and Nick Calathes had a season-high 11. James Harden led the Rockets with 16 points, and Chandler Parsons scored 11. Dwight Howard had 10 points and 12 rebounds, but Houstons three-game road winning streak was snapped. "The last two games weve been terrible offensively," Parsons said. "Their pace works for them. They make you play a half-court offence. They are physical. They grab. They reach. They hold. When you do that so much, they are not going to call every single foul." Memphis bench outscored the Rockets reserves 44-27. The Grizzlies also had a 56-32 advantage in the paint and a 52-38 edge on the boards. The Grizzlies, as they did Friday, controlled the pace of the game, holding Houston to its second-lowest scoring output this season. Houstons season low was 80 points on Jan. 10 at Atlanta. Rockets coach Kevin McHale said before the game that Houston needed a score in the 100s to overcome Memphis deliberate, grind-it-out pace. That game plan went awry when the Rockets, who entered averaging 105.5 points, managed only 14 in the first quarter. "They beat us. Bottom line," McHale said. "They beat us (Friday) night, and they beat us up again (Saturday). They got offensive rebounds. They moved the ball. They caught us being stagnant, and they were better than us by far." Memphis extended its 11-point halftime lead by outscoring the Rockets 25-19 in the third quarter. Lee had nine points in the period and Harden scored 10 for the Rockets, limited to five field goals out of 21 shots. Three of those baskets were by Harden. From there, Memphis stretched the lead to 27 midway through the fourth, and McHale began sending in his backups. Parsons, who connected on 10 shots from 3-point range Friday, finished 1 of 6 from long range, part of the Rockets going 9 of 32 from 3-point territory. Memphis has won 12 of its last 17 and is 5-1 since Marc Gasol returned from a knee injury. Several Grizzlies said the team appears on the verge of regaining the identity it had during recent playoff runs. "Were ready to win and we prepare like we want to win," Johnson said. "We travel like we want to win, and everybody is holding each other accountable. When you put those things together, we beat teams bad." NOTES: Since moving to Memphis, the only other time the Grizzlies played a home-and-home set on back-to-back nights was in 2006 against the Dallas Mavericks. ... Randolph played his 300th game for the Grizzlies and posted his 189th double-double, tying Pau Gasols total with the team. ... The Rockets were held under 90 points for the sixth time this season. Cheap Authentic Basketball Shoes . None of them are Finlands Pekka Rinne, who stands as Canadas biggest challenge in Thursdays quarter-final round. Even while a young Finnish team has struggled with penalties, turnovers and a lack of offensive depth, Rinne has been a rock with a 1. 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But my amendment will force him to miss one or two more games if the series goes that long and if Backes does not return. You see, Im interested in fairness, and theres no fairness if theres a discrepancy between the number of games Seabrook misses and the number of games Backes is forced to sit out. In short, Seabrook should only return to the series if Backes does. If Seabrook comes back and Backes doesnt, imagine the outcry if Seabrook scores the winning goal to eliminate the Blues. I dont want to see that. I dont think the NHL does either, but given the chance to prevent that scenario, the NHL took a pass. On fairness. Now, I will save both of us time by asking you to go to the top, insert the names of Matt Cooke and Tyson Barrie where Seabrook and Backes were mentioned, and read this again. Same deal—Cooke should not return to the Minnnesota-Colorado series unless Barrie does, and we know Barrie wont, due to an MCL injury, so Cooke is either finished for the season or waiting to play St. Louis or Chicago. No need for a hearing, NHL. ------- Heres item two - the 2015 NHL entry draft, to be known as the Conor McDavid-Jack Eichel sweepstakes. McDavid and Eichel are two so-called "franchise-changers". The NHL teams that land them wont just be better, they may succeed for many years to come solely because of them. So there will be more interest than normal in the draft lottery that will identify the teams with 2015s first and second picks, and more interest than normal, so the theory of "tanking" goes, in playing just badly enough to secure the most favourable lottery odds next year.Heres where I come in. I will create more interest than ever in the draft lottery and, at the same time, end all thought and any mention of tanking. I will do that by giving all 14 non-playoff teams an equal shot at the first draft pick in 2015. Fans of each of those 14 teams will hang on every second of the draft lottery. Itll be similar to, but better than, the draw that sent Sidney Crosby to Pittsburgh. It was packed with suspense, but it had odds attached that happened to favour the Penguins, so there wasnt the wide-open nature of competition and interest that pure luck creates. However, the biggest reason for eliminating draft lottery odds is to wipe out any incentive to gain a draft advantage on the ice, and to eliminnate all the talk that goes with it.dddddddddddd As the imaginary leader of the NHL, Im furious whenever I hear a team advised to think about winning a draft by losing a game. The NHL includes just one guarantee when it sells a ticket - it guarantees a contest that will see two teams trying their best to win. If there is any doubt that the customer is receiving that guarantee, the doubt must be removed. A "luck of the draw" draft order will do that. And before you, or the NHL complains that the worst teams should be the ones that land McDavid and Eichel, realize two things - the NHL could make it happen that way by eliminating the lottery, and chooses not to do so, and the NHLs current system allows for the possibility that its best non-playoff team will make the first draft selection. Its just unwilling to make that a stronger possibility. Im not. --------- Now its time to open the rule book and apply some common sense to it. The Tampa Bay Lightning will be complaining all the way to next season about a Ryan Callahan goal against Montreal that didnt count because…..well, because the referee thought it shouldnt count. I cant explain it better than that. When Alex Killorn was trying to put the puck past Carey Price and ended up in the net himself, all sorts of confusion ensued. The refs arms waved, play continued as Killorn extricated himself and tried to avoid Price and P.K. Subban, even as they didnt seem to be trying to avoid him, and Callahan eventually scored…..sorry…put the puck in the net. Then the refs arms waved again, and the goal was disallowed. My new rule wouldnt have allowed the Lightning to be tied with Montreal on the scoreboard, but it would have prevented all the controversy. The best new rules are simple ones. In this case, when Killorn plunged into the net, regardless of whether he did that on his own, was pushed, or did so because of contact with Price, the whistle should have blown to halt the play. Nothing good ever follows a net crash like the one involving Killorn. If he stays there, no goal can be scored. If he tries to get out, he can get mugged, or at least interfered with, and theres every chance hell be bothering the goalie enough to affect things and make any refs ruling subject to criticism. Just as the whistle blows if the puck enters the net, so should it blow if a player does. Thats all the time I have to run the NHL today. If Ive made any sense, pass it on. And if I havent, Ill try again next time. (English indie band - Im declaring this the official anthem of "Pass It On") ' ' '