In 2020, pro-basketball executives created the bio-secure “NBA Bubble” in Orlando, Florida, to allow pro-basketball games during the COVID-19 pandemic era.
During that time, teams on the edge of the playoffs were in the Bubble and facing each other to earn the right to the seventh and eighth seeds. The NBA thought so much of the Bubble that they made it a permanent change in the 2020-2021 NBA season. In the Western Conference, the eighth seed came down to a game between the Golden State Warriors and Memphis Grizzlies.
On May 21, 2021, Steph Curry led the Warriors with 39 points, valiantly trying to get them to the playoffs.
Unfortunately, Curry’s efforts were insufficient, and behind guard Ja Morant’s 35 points,
the Grizzlies defeated Golden State 117-112. In winning that game, the Grizzlies went to
the playoffs for the first time in four seasons.
