Before the season, if I told you that the Memphis Grizzlies would be 20 days into the month of April with no Jaren Jackson Jr. sighting, you’d probably assume that they’ve played extremely poor basketball during that period.
Defensively, you’d be right — they’d had their fair share of struggles guarding opposing teams.
But on the offensive end, the team wearing Beale Street Blue has been playing its best offensive basketball of the entire season. Actually, scratch that. They’ve been playing the best offense in the history of their franchise in the past three weeks.
The Memphis Grizzlies lead the NBA in scoring in the month of April
While watching the Memphis Grizzlies’ broadcast against the Denver Nuggets, one thing stood out in passing. On multiple occasions, Pete Pranica, Grizzlies broadcaster, mentioned that Memphis was the best offensive team in the league in the month of April thus far.
At first, my instinct was to doubt that fact. Pranica is a reliable guy, but the Grizzlies have never been an offensive team. The scoring has been great in the last month, but they’re putting up more points than teams like the Phoenix Suns, Milwaukee Bucks, and Utah Jazz.
Turns out, they are.
In the past 20 days, the Grizzlies have scored 122.7 points per game, securing the top-scoring spot in the league in the month of April. They have done this by improving in a few areas, but most notably, the 3-point shooting has seen a meteoric rise.
On the year, the Grizzlies have shot the 3-pointer at 36.1%. In the month of April? 41.0%. That’s good enough for 3rd place in the league, behind only the LA Clippers and Atlanta Hawks.
Perhaps even more notably, the Grizz are taking more 3-pointers to go along with their increased percentage. They’re shooting the ball from long-range an average of 4.4 more times per contest. If Memphis can continue this offensive onslaught, they’ll be a difficult team to slow down, especially when Jaren Jackson Jr., their best defensive player, returns to the court.
Even though they’ve taken a couple of brutal losses recently, this team could do some damage down the road in the NBA Playoffs.