By: Ben Leonard
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With or without point guard Mike Conley, the Memphis Grizzlies are no pushover. Any team with Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph will play you tough, making the Warriors’ 101-86 victory in Game One of the Western Conference Semifinals all the more impressive.

Conley was forced to sit out after undergoing surgery to repair fractures in his face, but still watched from the bench. Conley’s status for the rest of the series is still up in the air at this point. Without Conley, Randolph and Gasol paced Memphis’ attack, scoring 20 and 21 points, respectively, both grabbing nine rebounds.

But not even those efforts were strong enough to beat the surging Warriors at Oracle Arena, who extended their home winning streak to 21 games. Stephen Curry paced the Warriors with 22 points and 7 assists, teaming up with fellow “Splash Brother” Klay Thompson and his 18 points to carry the Dubs over the depleted Grizzlies. As a team, Golden State shot an absurd 50.6% from the field, but were given some competition by Memphis in that department, who made 45.2% of their shots. However, the difference in this game was the Warriors’ ability to knock down threes, hitting 13 of their 28 attempts, as compared to Memphis’ 3 of 12 showing.

The Warriors were off to an auspicious beginning, holding a 16 point lead in the second, but failed to pull away from Memphis, finding themselves up just nine at the half. However, the Warriors outscored the Grizzlies 22-14 in the third, proving to be the difference in the game.

Golden State will look to take a 2-0 series lead on Tuesday, with tipoff at 7:30 PST at Oracle Arena.