On May 2, Beijing time, the Grizzlies were reversed in the Western Conference Semifinals G1 once led by 13 points, and finally lost to the Warriors 116-117, and the second round debut started unfavorably. However, Ja-Morant, who got 34+9+10 in this game, still set a milestone, and a statistic filled the gap in team history.
The Grizzlies' loss to the Warriors would not come as a surprise, after all, the young Grizzlies have very limited playoff experience and lack offensive strengths, and the Warriors sit on four All-Star players starting in the current year, and the core lineup that has reached the Finals for five consecutive years is still in place. However, judging from the performance of the two sides in the first game of the series, the Grizzlies are not without a chance, at least the Warriors can't restrain Morant.
In this game, Morant played 38 minutes, 14 of the 31 shots, 45.2% of the shooting rate is not very low, of which 11 shots 4 of the three-point performance is also acceptable, with 34 points, 9 rebounds, 10 assists and 3 steals, only 3 turnovers. In stark contrast, Stephen Curry scored 24 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists from 40 percent of the field in 37 minutes of playing time.
Although the Grizzlies lost in their second-round debut, Morant became the first player in Grizzlies history to score 30+ points and 10+ assists in a single game in the playoffs, which also filled the gap in the history of the team. It is worth mentioning that only 7 players in the history of the Grizzlies have scored 30+ points in a single game in the playoffs, of which only Morant and Zach Randolph have more than 1 time, while the only two players in the history of the Grizzlies who have assisted in a single game in the playoffs have double-doubled.
The reason why "again" here fills a gap in team history is because Morant also had such a record night in the regular season this season. Morant scored 52 points in 52 of 30 shots from the Grizzlies' victory over the Spurs on Feb. 28, 2022, including four of three-pointers, becoming the first player in Grizzlies history to score 50+ in a single game in an official game and making the Grizzlies the last of the 30 existing teams in the NBA to have a player score 50+ in a single game in the regular season.
Although the Grizzlies' path to advancement in the first round of the playoffs was not smooth, and although the Grizzlies lost home advantage in their second-round playoff debuts, the interior line is the Grizzlies' clear advantage over the Warriors, and if the Warriors can no longer restrain Morant, it is not impossible for the Grizzlies to eliminate the Warriors to advance to the Western Conference Finals.