Ja Morant is playing at an NBA MVP level for the Memphis Grizzlies this season- but the team has stunningly been incredible even when he’s absent from game action. With Morant out due to a knee injury on Wednesday night, Memphis took down the Brooklyn Nets 132-120 (despite Brooklyn’s Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving combining for 78 points).
The Grizzlies are 50-23 on the season, good for the second in the NBA and Western Conference (the Phoenix Suns are first, at an absolutely ridiculous 59-14). And when Morant doesn’t play, Memphis is 15-2!
Memphis being 15-2 without Ja Morant is one of the most bizarre statistics you will see this season. Maybe ever.
— Chris Mannix (@SIChrisMannix) March 24, 2022
This doesn’t mean that the Grizzlies are actually a better team without Morant; they’re definitely not. But it shows how strong and deep this Memphis team is as a whole, and it says a lot about Taylor Jenkins’ ability to coach.
In Wednesday night’s win, three different Memphis players scored 21-23 points. One of those players was Desmond Bane, who scored 23 points and is averaging 17.9 points per game this season, behind only Morant on the Grizzlies. Bane has scored at least 21 points in seven of 10 games in March.
the one that broke the record. https://t.co/zz7WQuAy9Y pic.twitter.com/W7P0K4HtSI
— Memphis Grizzlies (@memgrizz) March 24, 2022
After the game, ESPN’s Malika Andrews tried to interview Bane, but he was joined by pretty much the entire Memphis team for the first 20 seconds of that interview. This is a great example of the camaraderie of this Grizzlies team, and it shows how fun they are:
The Memphis Grizzlies basically do postgame interviews as a full team.😂 pic.twitter.com/YVe59pg1Mu
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 24, 2022
That’s good stuff.
The Grizzlies rank fifth in the NBA in offensive rating and seventh in defensive rating. They have a superstar in Morant, and as they’ve shown when he’s not on the floor, they have many other ways that they can win. They’re going to be an extremely difficult team to beat in the NBA playoffs.
And with an extremely young roster (nobody is over 28; Morant is 22, etc), the Grizzlies are just getting started.
[Photo Credit: ESPN]
