Geoff Calkins: Griz fans finally get season they don't want to stop

Going to FedExForum tonight, I mean. Or tuning in on television. Either one. It will feel different, knowing it could be the last time.

The last drive to the arena. The last national anthem. The last home game of this magical, improbable year.

Shane Battier is a free agent after this season. It could be the last time you see him in a Grizzlies uniform. Hamed Haddadi is a free agent, too. It could be the last time you cheer crazily when he comes into the game.

O.J. Mayo could be traded for real when the year is done. Hey, things happen. Teams evolve and change.

This isn't to be grim, either. The Grizzlies are favored against the Thunder tonight. If they win and force a Game 7 back in Oklahoma City on Sunday, who knows what might happen? The Grizzlies could be hosting the Dallas Mavericks at FedExForum next week.

But tonight will still feel different. Because the stakes are higher. Because -- at long last -- this city has come upon an NBA season it doesn't want to end.

When was the last time you felt this way heading to FedExForum? When was the last time you headed Downtown fervently hoping it won't be your final trip of the year?

Or is this another first? I think it probably is. In the three previous playoff trips, Memphis never threatened to win a series. So this feeling you have now -- this nervous anticipation, this hope against hope -- is something entirely new.

Once, Grizzlies seasons were something Memphians were happy to be rid of. Good riddance. Thanks for nothing. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Now, the Grizzlies season is something to be savored and extended. C'mon, guys. Just two more wins. You can can get one at the Grind House.

And they can, of course, no matter what happened in Game 5. There has been some backlash against the whole Grizzlies-were-exhausted theory, but it's silly to think that wasn't a big part of it.

Yes, the Thunder were coming off a three-overtime game, too. But they won that game. That gave them an emotional lift. Then they drew fresh energy from their cacophonous fans.

The Grizzlies hung with them for a quarter. And then it all slipped away. By the end, the players were frustrated, even lashing out. Zach Randolph -- who has been pounded on all series long -- was particularly ticked. He said the coaches have to draw up better plays and the perimeter guys have to knock down open shots.

Randolph was right, by the way, about the coaches and the perimeter guys. The Thunder have figured out how to beat the Grizzlies. They mug Randolph and Marc Gasol down low, and watch as Sam Young, Tony Allen and Mike Conley miss a whole mess of shots.

You'd think Lionel Hollins might help his big guys by starting a shooter in place of Young. But Hollins is stubborn. That has been one of his strengths. If he didn't stubbornly believe in the potential of this team -- believe when not many others did -- then Grizzlies fans would likely be preparing for another lottery.

Instead, they have tonight. They have at least one more chance to exhort their team. Fans of the Celtics, Lakers and Spurs are all done for the year. Not Grizzlies fans. How cool is that?

So they will pack into FedExForum once again, with their joy and their fury and their wall of towels that say, simply, "Believe Memphis." It'll be an important basketball game, certainly. But it will be much more than that.

It will be a celebration of this place. It will be a last stand for fun and grit and the raucous spirit of community.

It will be a chance to feel the Grind House rocking once again. May it rock as it has never rocked before.

And if the basketball gods are willing, may the Grizzlies give this season the exclamation point it deserves.

"People think we're done," said Randolph, "but we believe."