Rewind a few months and in the eyes of most NBA fans, the Memphis Grizzlies don’t stand much of a chance at making the NBA Playoffs. A 2019-20 squad in full health couldn’t manage to achieve a winning record, so how could a team without Jaren Jackson Jr. and Justise Winslow improve upon their record last year?
Even their star point guard Ja Morant was out for a while earlier in the season after a scary injury in the team’s third game of the season.
And for a while, a losing record seemed inevitable. After Morant was injured, the Grizz would lose three of their next four games. It appeared that this young team was going to go down a similar road as they had a year ago.
Unexpected players stepped up for the Memphis Grizzlies, creating a path to the playoffs
Bizarrely, the Memphis Grizzlies would finish out their time without Ja Morant with a 3-game winning streak. This would continue into Ja Morant’s return when the team would eventually win seven games in a row, a number that still stands as their longest streak of the year.
The streak was vital to their results this year, and despite a 4-game skid after this winning streak, they were still alive in the playoff race. Things could have very easily gone differently during that time, leading to the Grizzlies being on the outside looking in.
Since then, Memphis has managed to win a game or two for every loss the team records. You rarely see a team float around .500 as consistently as the Grizzlies team. But they may have turned a corner at the right time.
The Memphis Grizzlies have continued to over-perform on the court
Once again, injuries started to pile up for Memphis, with Winslow back out of the lineup, De’Anthony Melton missing time, and Brandon Clarke sitting with a nagging injury. The Grizzlies would continue to win though. They met their second-longest winning streak of the year with four in a row, which leads us right up to this moment in time.
Even though they’ve only won six of their last nine games, this is the most important Grizzlies stretch of basketball. In wins during that stretch, Memphis has outscored opponents by an average margin of over 13 points, each of these wins being in double digits. Meanwhile, the losses during that stretch have been close with the scoring margin being just 5 points.
The Grizzlies are winning big and losing as a result of not being able to close out close games. That said, closing out games is an area that this team needs to patch up before the end of the season. If they had turned the table on each of their close losses, the narrative could be different right now.
That said, the Grizzlies will not complain about where they have themselves positioned. If this was a normal year, they’d find themselves in a spot that would get them into the playoffs. Due to a shortened season and an uneven amount of games played for each team, they’ll likely find themselves competing in the NBA’s Western Conference play-in tournament.
Or at least that’s what they’re projected to do. Here’s why they could play themselves out of it.
The Memphis Grizzlies have a chance to play themselves into an NBA Playoff spot
Let’s rewind again. After the NBA All-Star break, the Grizzlies were hovering around the 10th spot in the Western Conference. The West was competitive, with a handful of teams in a dogfight for a spot in the play-in tournament. The Grizzlies were managing to hold onto the 10 seed, but not by much.
But an interesting set of circumstances may have changed the Grizzlies’ luck.
For starters, the Western Conference was attacked by an injury bug. The Los Angeles Lakers are currently playing without LeBron James and Anthony Davis, while the Nuggets recently lost Jamal Murray to a torn ACL. There have been a handful of injuries all around, which is never a good thing.
That said, the Grizzlies have been playing with injured players all year long — the playing field has just become more level. Here’s what the Western Conference standings look like just ahead of the Grizzlies:
- 4. Denver Nuggets
- 5. Los Angeles Lakers
- 6. Portland Trail Blazers
- 7. Dallas Mavericks
The Nuggets sit in the 4th seed in the West with the Lakers just behind them. Both of these teams were hoping to finish the year as a top seed, but have been sliding downward while being nagged with injuries. The Lakers will likely bounce back, but it’s hard to see the Nuggets stay afloat without the leader of their team.
Here’s how the Grizzlies can sneak ahead in this conference.
The Memphis Grizzlies can sneak ahead of a couple of teams
This recent tragedy for a couple of teams isn’t anything to celebrate for the Memphis Grizzlies, but it’ll help them out down the road. As I’ve said, the Los Angeles Lakers will likely bounce back with the return of their stars. Assume the Portland Trail Blazers won’t see any significant decrease in productivity either.
This leaves the Denver Nuggets and the Dallas Mavericks, two teams that the Grizzlies are well within reach of.
The Nuggets, as mentioned, are dealing with a brutal injury to their point guard and the leader of their team in Jamal Murray. They still have an NBA MVP-caliber player in Nikola Jokic, but they’ll struggle without Murray. It’s unclear just how badly they’ll play, but they only hold a 6-game cushion on the Grizzlies.
This is a storyline to watch down the road, but there’s another one that’s happening right now. The Memphis Grizzlies could overtake the Dallas Mavericks. A game tonight could see them pull closer, while a telling stretch leading up to Jaren Jackson Jr.’s return will have huge implications on where this team sits in the NBA Playoff race.
If the Nuggets suffer without Murray and if the Mavericks continue to underperform, the Grizzlies will be waiting to snatch up the 6th seed in the West. Don’t count out this young Memphis team to earn a secure playoff spot in 2021.