116-108, a collision between two top four teams in the West, the Memphis Grizzlies home to the Golden State Warriors, the record improved to 29-14, one step closer to the 30-10 Warriors.
Morant broke through Wiggins' defense
Since the 27th of December, the Grizzlies have played a ten-game winning streak with gold, and the Nets, Suns, Warriors, Lakers and Clippers have all become their losers. Coincidentally, the Grizzlies' last loss before starting a ten-game winning streak was against the Warriors on the 24th, when they lost 104-113.
"Flying Bear" Morant
Facing Curry and Thompson, Ja Morant once again played exciting basketball: a game-high 29 points on 11-of-23 shooting, plus 5 rebounds and 8 assists, and the Warriors trailed by 5 points in the last 30 seconds of the game, and it was Morant's signature breakthrough left hand that ended in 2+1, completely dispelling the Warriors' hopes of catching up.
As the Grizzlies soar, recent news and highlights about Morant are everywhere, and fans can easily feel the style and charm of the young man from these video clips - light, fast and explosive, with a flying athletic quality and playing without ambiguity, whether it is a two-handed hat or a one-handed split, it can attract a lot of eyeballs. Morant's leap this season can be said to be the biggest highlight of the Grizzlies' wave of high-flying progress.
Against the Lakers, Morant's hands were covered
Morant's close-frame finishing technique is very comprehensive, dunks, pull bars, small throws can be said to be everything, which is one of his core competitiveness. One of his main problems in the previous two seasons has been that his projection is too mediocre, and this season has averaged 4.1 three-pointers per game so far, shooting 38% of the shooting rate, although it has not reached the level of a star shooter, but it has improved from before, which has also helped him to play the breakthrough he does best.
Defense is another problem for Morant, the Grizzlies were at the bottom of the league in defensive efficiency at the beginning of the season, and as a result, after Morant's knee injury was suspended at the end of November, the Grizzlies won consecutive games, and the defensive efficiency slipped to the first place in the league, which was very gratifying.
On December 21, Morant returned, and the Grizzlies immediately lost to the Thunder. "Losing is not terrible, who is embarrassed", fans frantically output on social media after the game, turning Morant off social media in anger. But then he saw a big explosion and helped the Grizzlies complete the longest and ongoing ten-game winning streak in franchise history.
Morant and Williams celebrate victories against the Warriors
What does this prove? It proves that Morant not only has a strong core strength, but also an equally strong inner strength. He is not a player like James and Doncic who just entered the league and immediately soared, last season's three-point shooting rate of 30% is simply unseen, high-level data and offensive efficiency are also very general, although the scoring data is quite beautiful, but not the person who leads the team. Now, he has come up with both data and efficiency on the court, further integrated into the team's defensive system without dragging the overall defensive hind legs, and become the actual leader of the Grizzlies. The league's strong sense of smell naturally does not let go of this qualitative change, and the best of two consecutive weeks is the best proof that the spotlight has hit him.
With personality, ability, and initiative, keeping this pace of progress, Morant can get better.
Bear Boy fierce!
The Grizzlies are no longer conleys and Gasol Jr.'s Grizzlies, nor Dillon Brooks and Valanciunas' Grizzlies. The current Grizzlies are a very young, energetic team, and the main rotation except for "Aquaman" Adams and "Sledgehammer" Kyle Anderson are basically under-25 players. Think about the previous absence of Morant but play the league's first defense, it can be seen that their basketball is by no means Morant's belt four, and there are not many underrated players in the squad.
Jackson breaks through Thompson
For example, Jaren Jackson Jr., known as "3J", previously played against the Clippers with 26 points, 8 rebounds, 3 steals and 5 blocks, the last game against the Lakers 21 points, 12 rebounds and 6 blocks, and yesterday against the Warriors 13 points, 11 rebounds and 3 blocks. The league's current average of 2.0 blocks per game Is eighth, which is already a good position, but a closer look reveals that Jackson is the second-highest average in the top 10 blocks, behind "Thick Brow" Anthony Davis. This is an interior line of the same age as Morant (born in 1999) and both offensive and defensive.
Tyes Jones, who scored 17 points on 5-of-5 shooting against the Warriors yesterday. He currently averages 4.2 assists per game, not in the league's top 50. But at the same time, he averaged 0.8 turnovers per game — Paul, who is at number one, currently has 10 assists and 2.3 turnovers per game, and Second-place Hasha has 9.7 assists and 4.8 turnovers. This means that Tyes Jones is currently the no. 1 player in the NBA's assists/turnover ratios.
The Grizzlies' current player reserves are quite diverse. There are "skinny strips" like Morant and this year's No. 10 pick Zaire Williams, there's a modern interior like Jaren Jackson Jr., who is moderate enough to balance low-post defense and moving foot, and there's a heavy big man like Adams, which allows them to do different defensive responses against different types of opponents.
The Grizzlies are currently the league's number one rebounds and blocks (averaging 48.2 boards, 6.2 caps per game), and the ability to press is very outstanding, yesterday forcing the league's first pass warriors to make 16 mistakes, using the fast attack link to score 25 points... As we often say when we evaluate the Shanghai men's basketball team now, you have to have Tough defense as the foundation to be able to play Easy basketball.
Of course, it's too early to say where this team can go, whether it's the young people on the team or the leading Morant, who has to pass the test of the playoffs to look ahead and discuss where the ceiling is. But now that this ten-game winning streak has shown that this is a team to be reckoned with, this season's Western Conference is believed to be made more interesting by the Grizzlies' sudden rise.