LOS ANGELES – How do you keep a young team grounded, even-keeled and focused on what’s ahead after an emotional, buzzer-beating victory for the first win of a new era?
“You sniff the gym,” Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins explained.
The aroma of reality came swiftly when the Grizzlies landed from their four-hour flight to Los Angeles on Monday. They didn’t immediately ride over to the team’s five-star hotel in advance of a night off in one of the world’s most glamorous cities.
Instead, Jenkins and his players bused a few miles away from the airport, pulled into a tiny Catholic high school and crammed into a modest gymnasium.