The Memphis Grizzlies are defying everything that I know about basketball right now. After an injury to Ja Morant, this team has gone on an unnecessarily dominant five-game run, demolishing everybody in their path.
In the past five games, Memphis has won by an average scoring margin of 25.8 points — that’s the best number in the league through that stretch of time. If you like semantics, you’ll point to the Grizzlies’ 73-point win over the Thunder as the reason behind this. If anything, that just proves even further how dominant this Grizz basketball team has been.
Today, I’m going to be giving you three impressive numbers from this current Grizzlies winning streak. (Technically, you get four, as I already gave you the 25.8-point margin of victory number in the previous paragraph. Also, while I’m in parentheses, note the pun that I’ll be using in the title below.)
Memphis Grizzlies Number No. 1: 117
This number 117 refers to Jaren Jackson Jr.’s +/- in Ja Morant’s absence. To make this even more impressive, Jackson was taken out early in the Grizzlies’ 73-point win over Oklahoma City, so the Grizz forward had a modest +42 in that one.
Just a couple of weeks ago, Grizz fans were complaining about JJJ’s $105 million contract after a series of bad games — where are those people now?
Jackson Jr. must have heard your complaints, as he has been playing the best basketball of his career in Morant’s absence. If his +117 over five games wasn’t convincing enough, perhaps his scoring average of 19.2 points will. No? He’s also averaging two blocks per game in this stretch.
JJJ is playing elite basketball.