A Look At The Memphis Grizzlies Recent Success
The Memphis Grizzlies have gone through their share of ups and down this season, but over the past couple of weeks this team has been firing on all cylinders. On Friday November 26th Ja Morant suffered a knee sprain in a blowout loss against the Atlanta Hawks.
While many people expected the team to struggle in his absence it’s actually been the complete opposite. They’ve won nine of their last 10 games to improve their record to 18-11 and currently sit in 4th place in the Western Conference.
Dillon Brooks’ return provided a massive spark to this team, and now that he’s gotten a few games under his belt he’s starting to look like his old self. They’ve also stumbled upon a really good trio with Brooks, Desmond Bane, and Jaren Jackson Jr. which is causing headaches for opposing defenses.
The wins this team earns now are important for the standings, but as well as the long-term future. In the past, without Morant, this team has struggled offensively but this time with him out due to injury they’ve been forced to step up and find ways to win.
One reason they’ve been able to do just that is Tyus Jones stepping up at point guard. In Jones they’ve had a reliable veteran leading the way who takes care of the basketball and can knock down shots.
The depth of this team has been on full display during this stretch, but there’s a reason that they’ve gotten to this level of play and a lot of it has to do with a mindset change. Before it seemed as if they were coasting to start the season, but when Morant went down a sense of urgency set in.
The energy on the defensive end of the floor might be the most obvious edge they have over opponents. For some teams, defense is an afterthought, whereas with Memphis it’s the catalyst for their offense.
The switch they made has been on full display during their last ten games where they have a defensive rating of 96.6 which is easily the best in the league (no other team is below 100). By contrast, in the first 19 games of the season they had a defensive rating of 115.9 which was by far the worst mark in the league. The return of Dillon Brooks was a major boost, but even without him they had plenty of quality defenders, which is where the mentality around their defense has clearly shifted in recent weeks.
This level of production on the defensive end of the floor isn’t sustainable, but there’s no excuse for them not to be at least a top 15 defensive team. If they continue to score the ball at a decent clip they’ll be able to win a lot of games. This team has a chance to be a threat in the western conference sooner, rather than later.
-Chris Kern
Twitter: @ChrisKern11