3 things we learned Monday from the 2017 NBA playoffs – FOXSports.com

Kawhi Leonard scored a playoff career-high 37 points, and the Spurs continued their beat-down of the Grizzlies with a 96-82 Game 2 victory that gave them a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Memphis is now essentially finished, because they’re not going to beat this San Antonio team four out of the next five games to somehow salvage the series. But even worse is that the Grizzlies figure to be finished for the foreseeable future.

Memphis went all-in with three enormous contracts, and it’s clear that it wasn’t the wisest of decisions. A core of Mike Conley, Marc Gasol and Chandler Parsons can’t achieve much more than it did this season — a low playoff seed in the West, followed by nothing more than a first-round loss.

(Even if you believe Gasol and Conley are more than simply above-average players, there’s no denying the Parsons signing was a complete disaster. Injuries limited him to just 34 appearances, and he averaged just 6.2 points per contest.)

And now that there’s so much money tied up in those three guys, it’s going to be extremely difficult to find meaningful ways to upgrade the roster.