Ja Morant has exploded to stardom making his first All-Star appearance and leading the Memphis Grizzlies to a Top-2 seed in the regular season.
Against the Rockets, Memphis not only remained afloat but cruise past their opponents easily with Morant sitting out.
While Houston is not the greatest example regarding their ability as a winning squad this season, the Grizzlies maintained a positive record all-season without their superstar.
More specifically, Memphis is 14-2 without Morant this season. The explosive point guard missed some games earlier this season with a foot sprain, and now he’s dealing with knee soreness, which made him sit out the contest against Houston Sunday.
The Grizzlies overcame his absence with balanced scoring and all-around team effort in the offensive end. While Desmond Bane had a crucial role with 24 points, he was just one of the six players to score more than 13 points in the 122-98 win over Houston.
”We’ve just got a great team,” coach Taylor Jenkins said, via NBA.com. ”They uplift each other. They they rise up when someone’s out and … they know we’ve got a job to do out there and that’s to compete to our level. Luckily when guys have been out, especially Ja recently, they’ve stepped up.”
The team put around Morant a great supporting cast, which powers the All-Star point guard ability to run the team. Jaren Jackson Jr. has been great as a two-way big for the team, while Desmond Bane has been shooting the lights out since the start of the season.
Steven Adams is great at creating space for Morant through his screening, while he’s also a dominant rebounder in both ends of the floor. Memphis is Top-10 in both Def RTG and Off RTG, according to Stat Muse.
Tuys Jones is maybe the best back-up point guard in the league, while Kyle Anderson is among the veteran leaders of a young squad. The Grizzlies bench is ninth in scoring and playing the most minutes in the league averaging 37.5 points in 19.7 minutes per contest.
Jones is a plus-6.7 when he’s taking the floor. He had 13 points and seven assists in Sunday’s win vs Houston. The Grizzlies are cruising past their opponents even without their superstar available.
Morant is not expected to be out for a lengthy period of time heading to the end of the regular season. Jenkins said Morant was OK and that he just wanted to give him some time to rest with the team’s next game not until Wednesday night.
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