However, it wasn’t enough for the team to advance and give Gay his first appearance in the second round. Pau Gasol of the Los Angeles Lakers and Rudy Gay of the Memphis Grizzlies. The Nuggets won a narrow 90-86 Game 7, where Gay gave his best overall effort of the playoffs with 21 points and eight rebounds. The Nuggets took Game 5, and nearly took Game 6 thanks to a 43-point effort from Jokic, but the Spurs won in the end as Gay contributed 19 points off the bench. The Spurs won Game 3 thanks to a 36-point effort from Derrick White, but Nikola Jokic led the Nuggets to a Game 4 victory. The Spurs won the first game on the road but then were defeated in Game 2 despite 31 points from DeMar DeRozan.
#NBA RUDY GAY DENVER SERIES#
The Spurs returned to the playoffs in 2019 where Gay averaged 11.1 points and 7.1 rebounds in a highly competitive playoff series with the Denver Nuggets. The Spurs were defeated by eventual NBA champion Golden State. Gay averaged just 12.5 points per game and 5.6 rebounds in five games. It was a drastically different type of production compared to back then. The 2018 playoffs were the first for Gay since 2012. After a fourth-place spot in the standings in 2010, the Grizzlies made the postseason, but Gay didn’t record a single statistic due to being hurt. In Gay’s first three seasons, the Grizzlies finished last in the division and won a season total of 22, 22, and 24 wins. Gregg Popovich is the winningest coach in NBA regular-season history, getting his 1,336th victory when the San Antonio Spurs rallied to beat the Utah Jazz 104. However, despite the individual success, Gay never enjoyed the fruits of the postseason. That landed Gay a five-year contract worth over $82 million.
He created a franchise record for points in a single season with 1,632 points, scoring a career-high 20.1 points per game in his second season in the league.īy the 2010-2011 season, he had established himself as one of the best small forwards in the league, recording career-high scores several times this season. He averaged 10.8 points, 4.5 rebounds, and played an impactful 27 minutes per game. 8 overall in the 2006 NBA Draft by the Rockets but was traded to the Grizzlies just a few days later. In his 2004-05 freshman year, Gay collected the Big East Rookie of the Year award after averaging 11.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per. Gay enjoyed a successful career with the Grizzlies in the regular season. Gay was named to the 2005-06 All-America Second Team.