The Memphis Grizzlies, in rare fashion, won their opening night game. I say “rare fashion” because historically, the Grizzlies have struggled to win their first game of the season. The last three years saw losses, even when Morant scored 44 points in the 2020-21 season opener.
That said, this year was different.
Granted, the Cavaliers had one of the worst records in the league last year — still, the win was impressive for Memphis. The game saw a handful of successful individual stats from some of the best players, including a 37-point outing for star point guard Ja Morant.
While he was at it, Morant put on a show in FedEx Forum, with multiple highlight plays. The first was a block that saw Ja hit his head on the backboard. I’m not saying that hyperbolically, either — his head literally hit the backboard when he blocked Lauri Markkanen’s shot.
He’d make the highlight reel again shortly after with a dunk where, once again, his head cleared the backboard. This time, he managed to avoid it on a high-flying alley-oop finish.
The Memphis Grizzlies benefitted from strong team chemistry, leading to a few impressive stats
It wasn’t just the Morant show though — the Grizzlies meshed well as a team, even with a few key additions.
Even with Steven Adams interrupting the starting lineup in place of Jonas Valanciunas, offensive team chemistry was through the roof. This led to more than a handful of solid numbers in the box score.
Today, I’m going to go over the five most promising team statistics from Wednesday night’s game.