MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- On the best playoff run in their short history, the Memphis Grizzlies refuse to be satisfied with just reaching their first Western Conference final. The San Antonio Spurs? Well, they know time is running out for a team that has done so very much in the NBA playoffs yet last celebrated a championship in 2007. Blowing a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals a year ago to Oklahoma City has driven the Spurs since training camp, and now they are back with Game 1 on Sunday against Memphis determined not to waste another chance. "We understand as a team that those opportunities are very rare, and we have another great one right now," Spurs guard Tony Parker said Saturday. "We have home-court advantage against a very good team, so we have to take full advantage of it." The Grizzlies are the former expansion franchise that started off in Vancouver before moving to Memphis, and they started by setting the NBA record for post-season futility while losing their first 12 playoff games. Coach Lionel Hollins, who won an NBA title in 1977 as a player with Portland, has his Grizzlies believing they can win one, too. The No. 5 seed in the West ousted first the Clippers, then the Thunder by winning eight of its last nine games, including three of four on the road. "Were just worried about going forward," Grizzlies guard Mike Conley said. "Were happy to be here, but were still focused on bigger things, and we got another tough opponent." That would be the Spurs with Tim Duncan, Parker and Manu Ginobili who swept the Grizzlies out of their first post-season in 2004. When Memphis finally won a post-season series, they beat the Spurs in six games in 2011, kicking off that series by winning the first game in San Antonio. Ginobili said the Spurs were not at their best that series and struggled to stop the Grizzlies big men in Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph. "We started with the wrong foot, we lost the first one and they got stronger and confident, and thats how they beat us," Ginobili said. This conference final pits Southwest Division rivals, with the Spurs as the dominating big brother with their four NBA championships and the fifth-best all-time winning percentage in the league since this franchise moved to the NBA in 1976. No coach and player have more post-season games than San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich and Duncan with 200 over 16 seasons. The Spurs clinched the No. 2 seed in the West winning just two more games than the Grizzlies. This should be a defensive showdown between teams built around big men with Memphis countering Duncan with 7-foot-1 Gasol and Randolph down low. Memphis held teams to an NBA-low 89.3 points during the regular season, and the Spurs tied for third in defensive efficiency. The Grizzlies also were second defending the 3, which could slow down Parker and Ginobili. "Finding ways to score is going to be very difficult," Popovich said. "Just playing against their defence is enough of a concern right off the bat." Hollins said beauty will be in the eye of the beholder for this series. "Some people think its ugly, some people think its beautiful," Hollins said. "I dont know. Dont really care." Home court mattered during the regular season as these teams split with each winning on their own floor. Remember when Popovich sent Duncan, Parker, Ginobili and Danny Green home to avoid playing the Heat in Miami on Nov. 29th? Well, that rest at the end of a six-game road trip cost the Spurs an unprecedented $250,000 fine. But the move paid off when the Spurs hosted the Grizzlies on Dec. 1 when Memphis was off to an NBA-best 12-2 start with a 99-95 win by San Antonio. Three of the teams matchups came before Memphis traded away Rudy Gay on Jan. 30. Memphis won the last game April 1 when Conley drove the lane for a layup and a 92-90 win on a night where Kawhi Leonard stayed in San Antonio with a sore left knee, Duncan sat out and Ginobili was out with a strained hamstring. "Its going to be a tough series," Randolph said. "Every time weve played them its a tough series. They got Ginobili, Parker, and they got a lot of other guys who do great things for the team." San Antonio went 35-6 at home in the regular season, then swept the Lakers to open the playoffs. The Warriors tested that home-court advantage forcing the Spurs to go to overtime to pull out the first game of that series and did win Game 2. The Spurs won Game 5 at home before closing out the series Thursday night. That forces the Spurs into a quicker turnaround, even though they do get to start at home. "I dont think you need any more challenge than playing in the conference finals and having the opportunity to go to the NBA Finals," Ginobili said. "Not that we needed that. It is big enough." Memphis has been on a bit of a revenge tour this post-season. The Grizzlies ousted the Clippers in six after losing to Los Angeles in seven last year, then they made up for their 2011 Western semifinal loss to Oklahoma City by knocking off the defending Western champs in five games. A key in this series will be Parker and Conley. Parker is averaging 22.4 points a game this post-season, while Conley is averaging a career-best 17.6 points while handing out 7.6 assists a game. "Hes the real key to their basketball team," Popovich said. "Everybody just thinks about Zach and Marc, who are sufficiently wonderful as players. But Conley is very, very important to that group." They got an extra day of rest after Wednesday nights 88-84 win over the Thunder. Now they have geared up again focusing on defence, rebounding and trying to outscore an opponent in the paint, which already has worked so well this post-season. "Its the same recipe," Gasol said. "Its just a little tougher." Hydro Flask Coffee Cup . Halladay signed a one-day contract with the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday that allowed the veteran right-hander to retire as a member of team with which he broke into the majors and spent the bulk of his distinguished 16-year career. Hydro Flask 32 Oz Wide Mouth . -- Three close looks at the bucket, three misses. http://www.hydroflask32oz.com/coffee-flasks/20-oz-coffee.html . Walcott is available for Saturdays home match against Southampton as Arsenal looks to extend its two-point lead at the top of the Premier League. The Gunners are currently the second highest scorers in the league but Wenger insists Walcott will add something extra to his team. Hydro Flask Wide Mouth .Y. -- Paul Byron and Matt Stajan scored as the Calgary Flames started a five-game road trip with a 2-1 overtime win over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday afternoon. Hydro Flask 18 Oz Wide Mouth . R.J. Umberger scored twice to lead the Blue Jackets to a franchise-record for consecutive wins with a 5-3 victory Tuesday night over the Los Angeles Kings. Sale Sharks 34-30 Leicester TigersSale Sharks director of rugby Steve Diamond: We didnt get a scrum all day so to come out of the game where you dont get a scrum and win, youve got to be delighted. Statistically, weve got the best scrum in the competition over the last two years, weve not lost a ball but we gave five penalties away today.Weve got Kieran Longbottom whos come from Saracens to join us and hes playing against a lad whos making it, but were adjudged to be illegal five or six times. Its unheard of, it was a rookie performance by the kid.He [referee Craig Maxwell-Keys] had a reasonable game apart from certain areas, which were crucial decisions, and thats what we come across regularly.Leicester Tigers director of rugby Richard Cockerill:?There was poor execution, weve got to look after the ball. We coughed up soft tries and were, on a couple of occasions, very easy to score against.Away from home, when youre in control of the game, you need to be better than that and we werent. Its a concern that we keep conceding tries like that and its costing us games.Were working on everything but players make poor decisions and you get caught, and it happened at least twice today. We got caught too easily and are making poor, fundamental errors.Northampton Saints 20-19 Exeter ChiefsNorthampton Saints second-row Courtney Lawes:?Harry [Mallinder] is growing as a player, he is learning from every mistake he makes -- unfortunately when you are young you do make a lot of mistakes. He is growing as a character in the team and he is a brilliant player, he did fantastic today with unbelievable composure to get the win at the death.We were desperate for that win and I think it really showed out there - we came back twice. We really back ourselves, we know we have been playing in patches and if we can string it together for the full 80 minutes there are not many teams who can live with us. We are just looking to stop these lapses of concentration.Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter: We never really grabbed control in that final quarter. There was an opportunity to squeeze the game out, but crucially we needed to hold up a bit better in the lineout, that is where we lost possession and it started to get a little bit messy.We looked a little bit too edgy in that final quarter, we didnt really look like the team going out to win the game and we were on the back foot for too long.There was a pretty clear block that opened up some space in their second try, but that is a bit churlish, we missed a couple tackles and sometimes when you get bumped it is because you are not focused.Bristol Rugby 0-39 SaracensBristol director of rugby Andy Robinson:?I am disappointed in the result. We started a lot better, but again, we havent performed for 80 minutes.One of the things we talked about was to build pressure on the opposition, but we turned over possession in our first two attacks, and we are not going to able to build pressure on the opposition if we do that.We made some courageous tackles and worked very hard, but Saracens kept their accuracy and throughout the game put us under massive pressure.It is something these guys have got to learn. Are we learning fast enough? We will find out next weekend when we play Newcastle.Saracens rugby director Mark McCall: I thought it was a really good professional performance by us. It wasnt perfect, but I thought we dominated the game and dominated field position.We put them under a lot of pressure, and 10-0 didnt feel a satisfactory lead at half-time, but I think all of that hard work paid off in the second-half and we were able to get the bonus point that we wanted.ddddddddddddI was pleased with our energy, and when we had to defend we defended with real intent. The pressure eventually told, and we got what we wanted from the game, which was pleasing.Gloucester Rugby 6-15 Bath RugbyGloucester director of rugby David Humphreys:?There is always pressure here, whether you are winning or losing.It is certainly an unacceptable start to the season, with three losses at home. We know that is not good enough.Weve let ourselves down this season. We have got to be smarter in games, and we have got to find a way to win a game like today.The bottom line is we are making too many simple, unforced errors, and that is not allowing us to generate pressure.For me, its really a case of we knew there would be some ups and downs with changing our playing style, but you have also got to play rugby to win games, and we havent done that this year.Bath Rugby director of rugby Todd Blackadder:?The conditions were heavy, and we knew it was going to be a real arm-wrestle. We absorbed a lot of pressure in the first half, and we knew if we played down in Gloucesters half in the second period we were in with a good shout, and that is probably what happened.We toughed it out, and I am just pleased we are improving every week. We knew we had to keep persevering and keep wearing them down. It took us a long time to get into our game, and it was a bit frustrating when we didnt take our opportunities.I am just proud of the squad. If you are fit at the moment, you are selected and out there and doing a job. We will only get better as time goes on.Wasps 47-18 Harlequins??Wasps director of rugby Dai Young: It was a really good win.We were a little bit sloppy in defence in the first half, we lacked a bit of bite but it was pleasing how we came out in the second half.I thought we were really ruthless today and Im obviously pleased. I thought we were far better (than Harlequins) in every aspect.Harlequins director of rugby John Kingston: We had 70 per cent in their half and 61 per cent possession of the ball, so that tells one part of the story, but on the other side seven tries to two says we didnt take our chances.We werent good enough when they had the ball and made it much too easy for them to score points, so weve got to be honest, look at it and see why those things are happening.Conceding 47 points in a game clearly suggests the defending is not good enough because youre not going to win, are you? Im not being rude, but its not rocket science, and conceding seven tries and 47 points is unacceptable.Newcastle 11-9 WorcesterNewcastle director of rugby Dean Richards:?A bunch of young referees are making decisions which are having a massive effect on the game.They have never been in a scrum in their life and have no idea about whats going on in it and they are looking at the outcome rather the cause.The young referees will learn and Tom Foley has the potential to be a good referee.It was a turgid and horrible game but we had a lot of possession and territory but didnt make it count.Worcester director of rugby Carl Hogg:?The game wasnt a classic or a huge spectacle but its great to get the monkey off our back.It was a huge tick in the box for team spirit and resilience, for Newcastle had most of the possession and territory and weve got a lot of injuries.We didnt play particularly well as our line-out malfunctioned badly, it was very frustrating and something we need to look at. cheap falcons jerseys cheap ravens jerseys cheap bills jerseys cheap bears jerseys cheap bengals jerseys cheap cowboys jerseys cheap lions jerseys cheap texans jerseys cheap colts jerseys cheap jaguars jerseys cheap chiefs jerseys cheap rams jerseys cheap dolphins jerseys cheap vikings jerseys cheap saints jerseys cheap giants jerseys cheap jets jerseys cheap eagles jerseys cheap steelers jerseys cheap 49ers jerseys ' ' '