The Memphis Grizzlies gave the Oklahoma City Thunder a serious wake-up call in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series.  On the Thunder’s home court, the Grizzlies took control of the game from the start and easily came away with the win, 114-101.

The most surprising aspect was the lack of energy the Thunder displayed on court.  The next surprising aspect was their lack of effort.

"Guys came in excited to play, anxious to play," Kevin Durant said following the game.  "Sometimes that can backfire.  You go out there starting to think too much, not playing with your instincts.  Once (we) started the game, the energy wasn’t there.  You try to kick it up a little later, but it was too late.

"They played harder than us.  They fought harder than us," he added.

Durant suggested his teammates were too excited, even too happy, in the locker room before the tip-off.

"I didn’t feel that way," Nick Collison told HOOPSWORLD when asked how he felt about Durant’s assessment.  "I just feel like we just didn’t play well.  We didn’t play hard enough.  We didn’t do what we set out to do."

What they set out to do specifically against Memphis was to take care of the basketball and keep them off the offensive boards.

"Those were the two strengths, the two keys we talked about before the game and we didn’t do a good job with it," said Thunder coach Scott Brooks.  "It’s obviously not the way we wanted to start."

Turnovers were a big part of the story.  Memphis had seven while Oklahoma City had 18; Russell Westbrook’s name in the box score showed seven alone.  Memphis scored a whopping 23 points from OKC’s turnovers.

Memphis grabbed 18 offensive rebounds, but the Thunder wasn’t far behind with 16 of their own.  Further, they were relatively even in total rebounds, blocked shots, free-throws made, free-throw shooting percentages and three-point shooting percentages.

However, Memphis had 11 steals vs. OKC’s six, and Memphis made 44 field goals at 49.4% shooting vs. OKC’s 35 field goals at 44.9% shooting.

Points in the paint definitely favored the Grizzlies with 52 (26-of-50) compared to the Thunder’s 38 (19-of-43).

"We didn’t execute on both ends.  You can make excuses, but that’s not what we’re gonna do.  They played better than us.  They made shots and they defended.  Give them credit," Brooks said.

The visiting team left the Oklahoma City Arena very pleased.

"Anytime you win on the road in the playoffs, it’s a steal," said Memphis coach Lionel Hollins.  "And that’s what we did.  We came in here and we stole one.  I’m just happy to have the win after coming off of a tough series with no real preparation to come in here and play the way we did.  It was a good thing."

Though it sounds illogical, the Grizzlies appeared to have the advantage playing again just 36 hours following their final victory game in the first-round series against the San Antonio Spurs in Memphis.  The Thunder had been resting the past four days since sealing a round one victory over the Denver Nuggets at home.

"I think the physicality and aggressiveness of that series, it was a bruising battle for those six games that we played," Hollins explained.  "We were probably a little bit more battle-tested today coming in than those guys who had an extra day off and played a different kind of team in Denver.  I’m sure as the series goes on, I’m sure they’ll catch up."

When asked if his team’s extended rest was a factor in the loss, center Kendrick Perkins said this: "I don’t like to use excuses, but at the same time I think they (were) more prepared for this game than we were as far as players, not coaches-wise.

"I think mentally they had it all in their minds that they were gonna come in here and attack us today and they did," he continued with a deep sigh.  "They (were) more physical with us from the bigs to the smalls.  We (were) late on a lot of rotations today.  We broke every coverage defensively.  We didn’t communicate.  We just didn’t play team ball tonight.  It wasn’t Thunder ball that you (saw)."

Oklahoma City didn’t quite get the production expected from its recently-acquired interior enforcer, and he readily accepted the blame.

"It starts with me.  I’m the vocal leader on this team," began Perkins.  "I’m probably one of most experienced guys on this team.  I kinda let my emotions get the best of me and it affected everybody else.  Accountability is key, and I take full accountability of this game tonight.  I felt like I let us down.

"That wasn’t me tonight," he continued, admitting the "right spirit" was missing.  "I’m gonna watch film on what I did wrong, nobody else.  Try to correct my mistakes.  You’re gonna see a different Perk come Tuesday."

{AUTHOR_BOX}"I don’t want to say shocked.  Disappointed," answered Collison when asked if he was shocked by how the Thunder bigs played.  "Just because we have different personnel doesn’t mean we’re gonna be able to take care of those problems.  You have to be able to play well."

"I thought we were a step slow in a lot of areas defensively tonight," Brooks said.  "We reacted instead of being more aggressive and that’s definitely disappointing."

Perkins echoed the common theme heard from the Thunder contingent after the game.

"I feel like the energy wasn’t there.  We didn’t play together tonight and we just gotta do a better job."

"We didn’t come out with any sense of urgency," noted Durant.

The million-dollar question is why?  Why would this young team that fought hard all year to secure that coveted home-court advantage fail to come out with energy in front of their home crowd in the franchise’s first trip to the NBA semifinals?  Why was there no urgency when they know what’s at stake?

"You could bring up a lot of different scenarios, this and that, but at the end of the day, you gotta play basketball and we didn’t execute on both ends," answered Durant.  "You can make excuses, but that’s not what we’re gonna do."

"We didn’t play enough on the edge," explained Collison.  "It’s easy to say we want to keep a tight game.  It’s easy to say we want to bat them on the boards, but the effort is the hard part.

"We didn’t do anything well today.  They beat us pretty much in every phase."

"Obviously we have to be much better if we want to win the series," Collison added.

"We’ve got to do a better job of communicating," said Perkins.  "We gotta get back to trusting each other offensively and defensively.  I actually like the situation for us, because it’s the first time being down in a series since we’ve been together."

For anyone else to say they actually like this situation, you would raise an eyebrow.  But when Perkins says it, you tend to believe it.

"It’s going to put anger in you," he shared.  "You’re going to hear everything in the world about ‘They were more physical than you, they were this, they out-hustled you, they beat you on your home court.’  All that (does) for me is give me a spark."

"It will be a different game come Tuesday."

Collison said it was "fairly obvious" a spark would be there for his team in Game 2.

"We’re down 0-1, and so we should have it.  It just comes on individual pride I guess."

"It’s the playoffs.  We gotta let this one go," Durant said.  "We learn from it, but we gotta let it go.  We just gotta move on.

"We’ve got to come out with more fight next game."

The Thunder has just one full day to find proper motivation and make adjustments to be better prepared for Game 2.  One of those adjustments includes finding a way to slow the Grizzlies’ main threat, Zach Randolph.

Randolph turned in a stellar Game 1 performance, prompting Durant to call him "the best power forward in the league."

Not surprisingly, Perkins vehemently disagreed with Durant’s proclamation, saying, "I’m not gonna give my opponent any credit that I gotta go against, so if Kevin (says) he’s the best power forward, then that’s Kevin’s opinion."

Brooks said the only way to slow Randolph is "to do a better job of controlling him and make him miss shots."

"We have to play much better as a team.  What I tell guys all the time is ‘You win and lose together’ and we lost this game together," Brooks added.  "We have to figure out ways to win Tuesday night together."

Though it’s a best-of-seven series, the Thunder now find themselves with little breathing room.  They have to steal a win in Memphis to have a shot at winning the series.