Grizzlies: 3 positive takeaways after bounce back win against Thunder

Ja Morant triple-double

This wasn’t the type of performance that you’re used to seeing out of Ja Morant. He didn’t light up the scoreboard and have a ton of flashy dunks. In fact, he would finish the game with just 15 points, shooting poorly in the process. For the second time this week, he’d go without making a 3-pointer.

But while he underperformed from the 3-point line, he excelled everywhere else on the court. And even though his score didn’t look good on the stat sheet, he filled it up everywhere else with a triple-double. This would include 15 points, 12 assists, and 11 rebounds.

A number that you won’t be hearing about is his 3 turnovers. It may seem like an odd number to fixate on, especially considering the fact that 3 TOs matches his season average. But Ja was coming off of two games that combined for 10 turnovers, something that could have easily led him into a slump. Even on an off shooting night, he was able to clean up his playmaking a little bit.

Though it may not seem like a noteworthy game, this was such an important game in Ja Morant’s development as a player. He proved to everybody that even on an off night shooting, he is capable of leading this team to a win. He was penetrating down low and creating opportunities for his teammates to excel.