One of these days, I expect to see Grizzlies vs. Thunder: A Quentin Tarantino Film. Seriously. The violence level fits, and tonight Scott Brooks — Scott Brooks! — drew a technical for saying God knows what. All you need to know about this one, though, is this Thunder statistic: Two fast-break points. Two. That’s how stifling the Memphis defense was, and when O. J. Mayo lofted a 25-footer at the shot-clock buzzer with 17 seconds left to put the Grizzlies up four, Loud City assumed an eerie quiet. OKC pulled within two on a pair of Russell Westbrook free throws, but Zach Randolph got two of his own, and Tony Allen tacked on two more just to rub it in. It’s the first time Memphis has beaten Oklahoma City this season in four tries, but it’s the one that’s going to hurt the most. Grizzlies 94, Thunder 88, and it pulls Memphis a couple of percentage points ahead of Dallas for the fifth seed in the West. (At this writing, the Mavs are being pounded by the L. A. Clippers.)

Mayo, in fact, outscored everyone: he had 22 points. Jeremy Pargo, starting in place of the ailing Mike Conley, came up with an unexpected ten; Zach Randolph, beside O. J. on the Memphis bench, had ten more. The Griz did not shoot well — 39 percent, 4 of 16 from beyond the arc — but they nailed 22 of 24 from the stripe. (The Thunder likewise put up 24, but only hit 17.) What Memphis does best, though, is force turnovers, and OKC obligingly coughed up the ball 18 times.

You have to assume that Westbrook is not happy with 5-16 from the floor (19 points), and Kevin Durant is less than pleased with 8-20 (21). Rebounds were even, OKC was up two in assists, but where’s the ball going through the net? “It wasn’t a lack of effort,” said Brooks; “we were out of sync.” Outscored 52-44 in the second half, they were evidently syncing out of sight.

Now to take it to South Beach. The Heat will not be in a forgiving mood, I suspect.

Hey, it’s the Grizzlies, and that always means a hockey game with hoops. Examples: It took a 15-4 run at the beginning of the fourth quarter to put OKC in front after thirty minutes of trailing. What’s more, both teams hit the foul limit within six and a half minutes of that quarter. And with 1:20 left, it was tied at 94-all, at which point Kevin Durant had had enough: not only did he score seven points in the last minute, but he was instrumental in making sure the Griz didn’t score at all. The 101-94 win was the third straight over Memphis, salting away the season series.

Durant, who got no rebounds in the first half, wound up with 10, to go with 36 points and three blocks. And Daequan Cook apparently has made the case for himself as the appropriate starter in the absence of Thabo Sefolosha: he didn’t generate a ton of offense, but he had seven rebounds and, yes, three blocks. With DC-14 starting, James Harden is back being the quintessential sixth man: he got 24 of the bench’s 27 points. (If this sounds alarming, consider that the Griz reserves got a total of 15, 13 from O. J. Mayo.) Russell Westbrook, despite early frustration that earned him a technical, finished with 21. And speaking of Ts, Kendrick Perkins is up to nine.

The Griz, of course, weren’t out of it until that last minute. Marc Gasol and Rudy Gay were pretty fearsome up front, scoring 47 between them, and Tony Allen, despite playing most of the last quarter with five fouls, was good for 17. And Memphis had the edge in almost all the off-box numbers: points in the paint, second-chance points, fast-break points. What they didn’t have, apparently, was an answer when Kevin Durant shifted into high(er) gear.

And now: five on the road, the middle three on the Left Coast. It’s going to be one seriously ferocious week, even without having to play the Grizzlies again until April.

By now, everyone has figured it out: the Memphis Grizzlies are fierce, and at the FedEx Forum they’re more so. The Thunder learned this last season, losing three of four, and got a refresher course in the playoffs, where it took seven games to subdue the Don’t Care Bears. The last meeting was 28 December, which OKC somehow won by three points, 98-95, despite Russell Westbrook having the Worst. Night. Ever. Tonight, Westbrook exploded for 30 points, and for good measure blocked a shot with 20 seconds left, and OKC somehow won by five points, 100-95.

We learned one thing: Marreese Speights, acquired from the Sixers, is no Zach Randolph, but he’s no slouch either, coming up with 10 points, one of six Grizzlies in double figures. Mike Conley, who played only a few seconds in that December game, was in good form, and Marc Gasol continues to be Marc Gasol. Rudy Gay, unfortunately for the Griz, wasn’t very Rudy Gay, hitting only 7 of 21 and missing four of five from the line.

With Westbrook running amok, Reggie Jackson saw limited minutes, but he’s probably not complaining, and he had two steals, as many as the rest of the team combined. Both Kendrick Perkins and Kevin Durant had free passes to Rebound City, Perk reeling in 13 and KD snagging 11 to go with 22 points. And then there’s Thabo Sefolosha, offensive machine, who knocked down three treys in three tries. You gotta love the idea of an elite defenseman who can shoot the long ball, right?

The Thunder have to play the Griz twice more this season, but at least they’ll have Loud City on their side. Not that Memphis is going to notice. For now, though, the more immediate issue, and by “immediate” I mean “tomorrow,” there’s a trip to New Orleans, where the Hornets, having taken out their frustrations on the Nuggets last night, should be well rested and anxious to prove a point — though what I want to know is whether Eric Gordon has recovered from that bruised right knee.

All sorts of weirdness connected with this game, not least the fact that Yahoo! Sports, where I usually get my box-score numbers, called this one as a final with four and a half minutes left. At the time, it was Thunder 89, Grizzlies 81. There was, of course, no way Memphis was going to lose this by eight, not with its entire frontcourt in double-double territory and with Russell Westbrook unable to buy, or even rent, a bucket. With a minute left, the Griz were down by two, 92-90. With five seconds left, the Griz were still down by two, 94-92. Westbrook drew a foul and sank both free throws; Zack Randolph responded with a trey; Kevin Durant drew a foul and dropped in two more points, and a Hail Mary by Z-Bo fell short at the buzzer, OKC escaping with a 98-95 win.

The Griz pulled down 49 boards, 19 off the offensive glass, well ahead of the Thunder. What Memphis didn’t have was a long-distance attack: sixteen 3-point attempts produced only six points. They also didn’t have Mike Conley, who rolled an ankle 24 seconds in; Jeremy Pargo filled in admirably well. Meanwhile, OKC was putting up three-balls all over the place, hitting 10 of 25, which is only 40 percent, but considering the Thunder shot only 37.7 percent, 40 seems miraculous. (Memphis was only slightly better, at 39.1.)

And I’m not kidding about Westbrook, who finished with four points, all from the stripe; he was 0-13 from the floor. On the upside, James Harden hit 20 for the first time this season, Kendrick Perkins had 10, and deadeye Daequan Cook went 3-4 from somewhere across the Mississippi in less than 15 minutes. Durant? Thirty-two. About his season average so far.

After this, the Mavericks (the Mavericks?) are going to look like a breather. But that’s tomorrow night in the Gas Chamber. I trust Yahoo! won’t post the score in the middle of the afternoon.

Damn.

You can tell exactly when this one finally tilted: with just over three minutes left, Zack Randolph missed a second foul shot, Kevin Durant picked it off, Russell Westbrook served it to James Harden in the corner, who nailed a trey, and then Harden stripped O. J. Mayo, setting up a spectacular KD dunk. It was 97-78, Memphis called time out, and Lionel Hollins sent up the white flag. The final was 105-90, and everybody except Ish Smith (well, okay, 15 seconds, sheesh) got to play.

But the man who made this all happen, if you ask me, is Nick Collison, who played 33 minutes, more than either Serge Ibaka or Kendrick Perkins, who pulled in a dozen rebounds and blocked three shots. Plus 26, said the stat line. Those of you who were wondering what Sam Presti was thinking when he paid Collison that humongous bonus to go with his contract extension — now you know.

Now add to that a 39-point performance from Durant, a triple-double from Westbrook (14 points, 14 assists, 10 rebounds), and you’re allowed to wonder how even the überscrappy Grizzlies managed to survive those first 45 minutes. It’s not like they were off their game or anything: four of five starters hit double figures, and they turned the ball over only ten times. Z-Bo even logged a double-double. But this just wasn’t going to be their day.

So much for the day of rest. Now to Dallas, where the Mavs have been playing even better without Caron Butler of late. Anyone who thinks this is gonna be a cakewalk is invited to shut his piehole. But for now, I’ll just fall back on the expletive:

Damn.

Zach Randolph, said radio guy Matt Pinto, had “that look.” No way were the Grizzlies going down if Z-Bo had anything to do with it, and of course he did: we’re talking 30 points and 13 rebounds. Thirty points, incidentally, is one more than the Thunder got in the second half, as Memphis bought itself a seventh game in the series with a 95-83 drubbing of Oklahoma City.

It wasn’t all Randolph, of course. For this game, O. J. Mayo started at the two and Sam Young came off the bench; Mayo wound up with 16 points and four steals, and Mike Conley, beside him on the wing, came up with a double-double (11 points, 12 assists). The Griz shot 43.4 percent, not great, but better than they had been.

Not that it made much difference: the Thunder were sending bricks into the air, and not particularly quick bricks at that. Russell Westbrook was reasonably effective, rolling up 27 points on 11-22 shooting, but Kevin Durant got into foul trouble early and never established any rhythm, unless you consider 3-14 for 11 points some rarefied form of syncopation. Outside shots were simply not falling: only four of 25 treys dropped. And if OKC was hapless from beyond the arc, they were not much better at the foul line, missing seven of 24. Besides which, Serge Ibaka had as many fouls as rebounds — five — and only a single block.

So it’s 48 minutes for all the marbles, Sunday afternoon. Unless it’s 53. It’s been as many as 63 in this series. Historically, the home team tends to win Game 7, but I suspect Zach Randolph may have something to say about that too.

The Grizzlies got out of Memphis before the muddy Mississippi came close to escaping its banks; perhaps the inch and a half of rain today perplexed them a bit. The broadcast team, for its part, figured it was fatigue. Whatever the reason, the Griz were adrift most of the evening, and the Thunder rolled up a surprisingly-easy 99-72 win in front of a damp but happy home crowd.

It was 17-17 after the first quarter, and things remained close for about six minutes after that. Then Memphis began to implode: easy shots were missed, silly fouls were charged. The Griz wouldn’t get 20 points in any quarter but the fourth. They shot less than 36 percent, collected only 33 rebounds, and gave up an uncharacteristic 14 turnovers.

Radio guy Matt Pinto says the difference was in the bench personnel: OKC reserves scored 53, versus 27 for Memphis. (Or you could look at it as 46 for the Thunder starters, 45 for the Griz.) Nobody hit even 20 points, though Kevin Durant managed 19, and Daequan Cook shot 6-7 for 18. And no double-doubles, though Nick Collison pulled down 10 boards to go with nine points.

So it’s 3-2 Thunder going into Game 6, back in Memphis Friday night. Me, I’m just grateful that this game ran about 100 minutes shorter than Game 4.

I have long believed that David Stern, if he thought he could get away with it, would stretch playoff series to nine games. This series with the Grizzlies already seems to have reached eight or so: the games have been long grinds, that apparently being Memphis’ favored pace. What’s more, Game 3 went into overtime; so did Game 4, when Mike Conley landed one from 26 feet with three and a half seconds left to tie it at 96. In Game 3, though, the Griz dominated those extra five minutes; tonight, they came from behind, and after both Conley and O. J. Mayo fouled out, Greivis Vasquez hit the long ball from just about the same place with nine seconds left to tie it at 109.

So there was double overtime, and it was 119-all when the Griz got three reasonable looks, missed them all, and with 6.3 left, the Thunder were unable to buy a bucket.

So there was triple overtime, and finally the Griz had nothing else up their sleeve: the Thunder pulled this one out, 133-123, and the series goes back to Oklahoma City Wednesday night.

Of all the things the Thunder could have done to beat Memphis — block Conley from beyond the arc, bottle up Marc Gasol and Zack Randolph — they did essentially none of them. (Gasol had 26 points and 21 rebounds; Z-Bo 34 points and 16 boards. Conley shot only 2-12, but hit 11 of 12 from the foul line.)

Meanwhile, Russell Westbrook somehow rolled up 40 points, Kevin Durant added 35, James Harden brought 19 from the bench, and you can say that OKC shot 9 percent better — or that Memphis shot 9 percent worse. (The Griz went 40 for 111, a blah 36 percent.)

But numbers didn’t matter in this 63-minute game which took nearly four hours. At some point, it becomes simply a matter of survival. And the Thunder will survive for Game 9 5.

Memphis, at the moment, is beset by rising waters, no thanks to the Mississippi River, which has been having a bit of a problem keeping within its banks lately. On the other hand, the Oklahoma City Thunder, in town for Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals, found themselves thirsty for points in the fourth quarter: in 11:56, they scored all of ten points on 4-18 shooting — that’s 22.2 percent, kids — as what had once been a double-digit lead turned into a tie at 86-all. Zack Randolph got the last shot, but he didn’t get it to go, and the game went into overtime.

And did OKC recover from this dearth of scoring? They did not. Overtime was half gone before their first bucket — by Nick Collison, Kendrick Perkins having just fouled out — and they’d make only two more in the game. Memphis 101, OKC 93, and the Griz are up 2-1. Not what anyone expected seventeen minutes before, with the Thunder up by thirteen.

So what happened in that fourth quarter? Failure to make shots, obviously, though the Grizzlies’ defense deserves much of the credit for that; Tony Allen stuck to Kevin Durant like one of those dollar-store mouse traps. Perhaps more important, Memphis drew fouls all over the place: they put up 44 free throws and made thirty. Not a great percentage, but the Thunder, which specializes in drawing fouls, went 21-23: great percentage, but nine fewer points. Neither team shot particularly well, though OKC was a hair worse: 36.6 percent. (Only one player of the twenty who played hit more than 50 percent: Memphis guard Mike Conley, who went 8-15.) The Griz won the battle of the boards, 55-53.

Weirdly, the Forum was littered with double-doubles. Russell Westbrook had 23 points and 12 assists before fouling out; Durant managed 22 points and 12 rebounds; but you want spectacular, you go to Z-Bo, who had 21 points and 21 boards.

And let’s not characterize the Grizzlies as some sort of Cinderella team. Those aren’t glass slippers they’re using to stomp the opposition. If they win this series, I expect them to dispose handily of the Mavericks and go right into the Finals.

So the game plan seemed to be this: confine Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol, and otherwise let the chips fall. Inasmuch as Z-Bo and Marc came up with fifty-odd points on Sunday, this made a whole lot of sense on paper, but the hard part would be actually delivering. Not a problem: with six and a half minutes left, the Thunder were up by 21, and while the Griz weren’t about to let that go unanswered — Memphis went on a 22-7 run to close to within six — Randolph and Gasol were held to 28, mostly from the charity stripe. (Between them, they shot 5-22.) So the Thunder even the series at 1-1 with a 111-102 win, with God knows what kind of street fight looming at the FedEx Forum Saturday night.

Mike Conley, noting that he wasn’t getting much attention, responded with a barrage of treys and long twos, finishing 10-15 with 24 points. And O. J. Mayo, apparently becoming used to his new sixth-man role, led the Griz bench with 16. Memphis did some serious rebounding — 38, 13 offensive, versus 34/7 — and collected 17 points from 16 Thunder turnovers. But they had sixteen of their own, giving up 20 points.

The Thunder somehow shot 52.8 percent, despite taking seven fewer shots than the Griz; even more inexplicable, they hit eight of 14 treys. (Eric Maynor got three of them; the only one he missed was a midcourt last-second shot to end the first half.) Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook showed a little more efficiency tonight, 17 of 38 for their 50 points, but the bench picked up 48 points, about three times what they got on Sunday. James Harden, despite not hitting the long ball, still rolled up 21.

So there will be a Game 5 at the Round Barn. But two games in Memphis come first, and Memphis crowds, now that Memphis has crowds, can be quite intimidating. We shall see.

So Les Griz came to town, and they dominated the proceedings: the Thunder never quite got on track, and Memphis scored a surprisingly-easy win at the Raincatcher Arena. Darnell Mayberry had tweeted that the Thunder were lucky to be down only ten at halftime, and he wasn’t kidding. The final was 114-101, and it could have been a lot worse than that.

In a way, this was reminiscent of how the Griz disposed of the San Antonio Spurs, winning the first game and thereby negating all that home-court advantage stuff. The things Memphis does best — scoring in the paint and collecting turnovers — they were happy to do today, to the tune of 52 points and 18 Thunder turns, which latter became 23 Grizzlies points. About the only thing Memphis didn’t do well was shoot the three-ball, and they didn’t have to: it was too easy to get into the lane.

Thirty-four points for Zach Randolph, who was apparently still on the same roll that finished off the Spurs Friday night. He also grabbed 10 rebounds. Next door, Marc Gasol had 13 boards and 20 points. Three other Grizzlies posted double figures. Memphis controlled the boards, 45-42; they even outdid the Thunder at the stripe, sinking 23 of 28. (Telltale statistic: the Griz turned the ball over only 7 times.)

The usual Thunder suspects got their usual numbers: Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka had double-doubles, Durant rolling up 33 points. Russell Westbrook had 29 points and eight rebounds and six assists — and seven turnovers. The Thunder in aggregate came up with only 16 assists, meaning that they weren’t moving the ball as well as they needed to. (The Griz managed 21.) And the OKC bench contributed only 16 points to the cause.

Game 2 is Tuesday night. The general consensus has been that the Thunder wins this series in six or seven; right now, I’m thinking the Griz pull this one out in six. If the Thunder have another game like this, maybe five.

While no one was looking, the Memphis Grizzlies climbed their way into eighth place in the West. The Griz won 21 of their first 30 games in the FedUpForum, and last night, just for good measure, they slid past the Mavericks in Dallas. You have to assume, therefore, that the Thunder, who’d beaten Memphis only once in three tries this season, were aware what they were up against. But maybe it didn’t matter: the Griz were clicking on all cylinders tonight, and Yahoo! Sports had the final score posted about four minutes (real time, not game time) before the game actually ended. (I went back a few minutes later, and they’d fixed it.) Grizzlies 107, Thunder 101, and that finishes off the season series.

Oklahoma City managed to outshoot Memphis (52.5 percent!), but they fell down on the boards, especially offensive boards, which the Griz dominated, 15-8. And they did it without Rudy Gay, who’s been out since mid-February with a shoulder injury. All five Memphis starters scored in double figures, led by guards Mike Conley and Tony Allen, both of whom picked up an even 20.

And for some reason, the Thunder weren’t getting the free throws. (Radio guy Matt Pinto would say it was because the fouls weren’t being called.) They put up only 18; worse, they made just 11. Neither Russell Westbrook nor Kevin Durant got to be a Force of Nature tonight, though Westbrook came closer, picking up 27 points on 11-21 shooting. (Durant went 8-19, despite four second-half treys; the Griz gave him grief from the opening tipoff.)

The road trip continues at Philadelphia. Do not get your hopes up: the Sixers have won eight of their last ten. On the other hand, they have to play at Indiana Tuesday, and the Thunder show up in Philly on Wednesday.

The Grizzlies have had their soft moments this season, which prompted Basketbawful to dub them the Care Bears. (Then again, you should see some of the things they call the Sacramento Kings — or maybe you shouldn’t.) In the last minute of this brouhaha at the Snowbound Later Arena, the score was tied at 95, and three really bad possessions (two by the Thunder, one by Memphis) later, it was still tied at 95. Several equally ghastly exchanges followed in overtime, but the Griz were slightly less ghastly, and Mike Conley iced the deal with three of four free throws in the waning moments, making their way out of town with a 105-101 victory over the Thunder.

And Memphis did this without Rudy Gay (sprained toe) or O. J. Mayo (suspended). Moreover, they did this without controlling the boards — the Griz were outrebounded 58-36 — and without a whole lot of help from their bench. Still, all five Memphis starters came up with double figures, with Zack Randolph posting a serious 31 points and 14 rebounds, and Tony Allen recording 27 points and five steals. And the Telling Statistic: the Griz turned the ball over only nine times.

Meanwhile, Russell Westbrook dropped the rock eight times by himself; the Thunder gave up twenty-three turnovers. Westbrook had a decent night otherwise, with 21 points and 11 dimes, and Kevin Durant poured in 31 points while pulling down ten boards. And how did Jeff Green do? Uncle Jeff had an off night, with seven points and seven rebounds. The bench did what they could: Serge Ibaka snagged 14 boards, James Harden dropped in 13 points, and Nick Collison was physical enough to foul out. But still: 23 turnovers? That’s enough to give the Griz almost a whole ‘nother Z-Bo.

There follows a weekend trip to the Left Coast, with stops at Excremento (whoops!) and Golden State; then it’s back home Tuesday against the Kings.

The Thunder, we had to hope, would not make the same mistakes they made against Memphis last time. The Grizzlies, who had beaten the Jazz last night and the Lakers earlier in the week, certainly weren’t showing any signs of fatigue. But the old ratchet-down-the-defense trick still works, and Oklahoma City pulled out a 109-100 win over Memphis at the Largely Inaccessible Arena.

At least one major difference was Jeff Green, who at some point had to defend just about every Grizzly on the floor. And Uncle Jeff didn’t flinch; holding Zach Randolph to 27 points and 16 rebounds is a tough job by any standard. Rudy Gay had 20 more before fouling out late. But the Griz didn’t dominate the boards this time around, they missed fourteen straight treys before O. J. Mayo finally got one in the last minute, and they left 11 points at the foul line.

Meanwhile, Kevin Durant, who had a fairly-pedestrian 12 points in the first half, dropped in 28 more in the second, for a total of 40; Russell Westbrook added 22 and 11 dimes, and Uncle Jeff, when he had the chance to shoot, got 15. The Thunder put up 42 foul shots, connecting on 35. If OKC had gotten some points in the paint — the Griz managed almost 60 — this might have been a blowout instead of a grinder; the game was, for the most part, a lot closer than that nine-point margin might suggest.

Take a rest, guys. You’re gonna need it, and Houston’s coming up.

O. J. Mayo was a no-show tonight: bronchitis. Turns out, the Grizzlies didn’t really need him: Tony Allen filled in brilliantly, and on-again off-again Memphis was on and then some, utterly blistering the Thunder on the glass en route to a 110-105 win.

And it wasn’t just Allen, though he posted a season-high 19 points. Both Zach Randolph (31 points, 16 rebounds) and Rudy Gay (27 points) pretty much had their way with a porous Oklahoma City defense. Memphis grabbed 42 rebounds, twelve offensive, while OKC managed only 31, with three off the offensive glass: the Thunder were the very definition of “one and done” much of the night. (Second-chance points: 18-8.)

The Westbrook-Durant combine had 28 points on each side, and James Harden added 17 from the bench. Technically, OKC outshot the Griz, 51.3 to 51.2 percent, but Memphis hit four more shots. The Thunder, as usual, were hot stuff from the stripe — 22 of 25 — but Memphis also managed 22 points from the line, albeit with five more attempts.

I am not exactly looking forward to seeing this bunch of Grizzlies again. Unfortunately, they’ll be in town Saturday night. Between now and then, there’s a trip to, um, Dallas. I have to figure, if the Mavs can compensate for losing Dirk Nowitzki, they can certainly compensate for losing Caron Butler.

Addendum: Bronchitis? Maybe not so much.

I hesitate to call the Grizzlies “awesome,” but they shot better than 60 percent all night, all five of their starters finished in double figures, and they haven’t lost once in the preseason. And, let’s admit it up front, they pounded the crap out of the Thunder, 116-96, a score which really doesn’t reflect how bad a pounding it was. (Twelve minutes earlier, it was 94-57, which does.)

I have no idea what happened. Maybe somebody parked a retrograde Mercury in the loading zone at the BOk Center. The bigs rolled up lots of fouls: both Byron Mullens and Cole Aldrich fouled out. (Aldrich, in fact, fouled out in nine minutes and nine seconds; that’s a foul every minute and a half.) None of the OKC starters scored in double figures. And Longar Longar got to play.

Still, there’s no denying the reality here. The Griz, if they play like this in the regular season, are going to scare everyone. Meanwhile, Scott Brooks is asking: “How do you guys expect to beat the Russians day after tomorrow?”

Xavier Henry, drafted by the Memphis Grizzlies this summer, didn’t see any Summer League action:

Henry, on the command of his agent, Arn Tellem, decided to sit out summer league because he couldn’t come to terms on a contract. NBA rookies are slotted into a salary — a number that can be negotiated between 80 and 120 percent.

The Griz are offering Henry 100 percent of the rookie salary and have proposed that the additional 20 percent be earned through bonuses. Griz brass contend the incentives are easily attainable.

However, it has been customary for NBA lottery picks to receive 120 percent of the slotted salary without hurdles to leap.

I suspect this will be addressed in the next Collective Bargaining Agreement.

The Griz want to pay him $1,683,500, with the possibility of $336,700 in easy bonus money; Henry wants it all up front. Either way, he’d be pulling the eighth highest salary on the team. And be it noted that Greivis Vasquez, the #28 pick, for whom rookie scale is a mere $863,300, was present and accounted for in Vegas for Summer League, despite not having signed his contract yet. (Another thing: Vasquez played four years of college ball at Maryland; Henry departed Kansas after one. Make of that what you will.)

Not that Grizzlies management are blameless: if the other 28 first-round picks are getting 120 percent, why are they quarreling over what is, by NBA standards, chump change? It’s hard to imagine that $336k makes that much difference, unless Memphis is fearing the luxury tax. (And given the deal they made with Rudy Gay, they might be.) But Henry can’t hold out too long: if he’s not signed by the 10th of January, the scale is reduced a bit each day thereafter. And if Grizzlies management want to make a fuss, they can renounce him, making him a free agent. Maybe someone else will want him — or maybe not. I dunno. OKC’s Sam Presti, probably even before this incident, would have docked Henry a couple points for attitude, and the fact that he played high-school ball at Putnam City and presumably has a built-in fan base here would count for exactly nothing.

You’d almost think that a 71-49 lead at halftime might be some semblance of safe. And you’d be wrong. The Grizzlies kept going and going — I swear, Rudy Gay has some Energizer Bunny DNA somewhere — and eventually Memphis pulled to within six before the Thunder put them away, 114-105.

The statistic everyone is going to ask about is “Did Kevin Durant get enough to win the scoring title with 30-plus?” He did, with a 31. But this is the one that mattered for this game: Eric Maynor, backup point guard, posted a double-double, with 15 points and 10 assists. (Maynor played more minutes than starter Russell Westbrook, yet.) In fact, the Thunder bench chucked in 46 points, while the Griz reserves managed only 20. This matters because the Lakers — remember the Lakers? — are struggling with a dearth of bench production, something very un-Laker-like.

As for Memphis, I have to figure that any organization that can turn one-time malcontent Zach Randolph (21 points/11 rebounds tonight) into a stirringly good team player has a bright future indeed.

In the meantime, allow 50-32 to sink in for a moment.

And there’s this, from the summer of 2008:

Q. How many seasons before the NBA team makes the playoffs?

A. Three.

Okay, so I was off by one.

Actually, Hasheem Thabeet didn’t score a point tonight, but he didn’t really have to: he snagged nine rebounds and blocked four shots, both career highs, in 23 minutes as the Memphis Grizzlies edged the Oklahoma City Thunder, 86-84. While all five Griz starters average in double figures, they won this one with serious defense — and a 20-foot jumper by Rudy Gay with 1.3 seconds left, which Kevin Durant tried to trump with a trey at the buzzer.

How close was it? The Thunder shot barely over 40 percent; the Griz shot just under 40. Each side put up more than a dozen treys, but neither got more than four to fall. The Thunder got 46 rebounds, 13 offensive; the Grizzlies 42, 11 offensive. But the Grizzlies kept getting second-chance points, while the Thunder were too often one-and-done.

Gay and Zack Randolph led the Griz with 25 points each; Marc Gasol contributed a double-double, 15 points and 13 boards. The Memphis bench managed only two points, but Thabeet, I figure, made up for that.

Russell Westbrook, having vowed to kick in $1000 for Haiti relief for every point he scored, will be writing a check for $8000. Jeff Green checked in with 15; Kid Delicious finished with 30. And James Harden continues to play sharpshooter, logging 13 points on a mere six shots and four free throws. But there was no getting past the Grizzlies tonight, and the season series is now even at 1-1.

On the upside, 2-1 is not a bad way to get through the first three games of a road trip. But the fourth is (1) tomorrow (2) against Cleveland, and King James will be waiting.

Addendum: Etan Thomas, who drew a DNP-CD, wrote a check for $30,000.

The Grizzlies scored first at the FedEx Forum; the Thunder then reeled off nine consecutive points, and led by 14 at the half. Memphis, however, refused to roll over and die. In the third quarter, the game plan seemed to be “Get it to Zach Randolph,” and if Randolph didn’t hit the first time, he’d surely get it the second. (Randolph finished with 19 points and 20 rebounds, 11 of them off the offensive glass.) The Griz outscored OKC 28-10 in that quarter to take a four-point lead. The Thunder, not used to this sort of thing, came back to regain the lead, ran it back to fourteen, and hung on to beat Memphis, 102-94.

All five Memphis starters made double figures; Mike Conley, who got the last score of the game, led with 20. And the Griz, with Randolph constantly up by the rim, pulled in a total of 51 boards, versus 47 for OKC. What may have undone them was their lack of suds at the stripe: they hit only 14 of 24 free throws. (Of the ten missed, Rudy Gay bricked five.)

You have to wonder how it is Oklahoma City was held to ten points in the third quarter yet got 36 in the fourth. Short answer: Nenad Krstić, who had four of his eight rebounds and nine of his 15 points in that final frame. Meanwhile, the Thunder were knocking down foul shots; they went 20-24, with Kevin Durant hitting 11 of 12 on the way to a 32-point showing. With ten boards, yet. Russell Westbrook worked the point nicely, rolling up 23 points, seven assists and only three turnovers. And the Thunder blocked 10 Memphis shots, which never hurts. Shooting percentage was an okay 46.4, which was five points better than the Grizzlies, though treys were few and far between for both squads.

These are the same Grizzlies who beat the Cavaliers in overtime Tuesday night. The Cavs will be here Sunday. Will the Thunder thrash the Cavs? I suspect a fellow named James may have something to say about that.