The Memphis Grizzlies just secured their second consecutive wire-to-wire victory on the road against the New Orleans Pelicans, bringing their record on the second night of back-to-back games this season to 5-0. It was also their sixth game in December, where they scored over 130 points, and their eighth game in December scoring over 120 points, which they are undefeated this month.
Their offensive output continues to remain despite the influx of players that are in and out of the lineup. Sixth Man of the Year candidate Santi Aldama left the Grizzlies' game against the Toronto Raptors on Thursday night in the first half with an ankle sprain, and when he was ruled out against the Pelicans last night, Jay Huff returned from an ankle sprain after missing four games.
Ja Morant left last night's game in the third quarter with a right shoulder injury but the offense continued to roll to a 132-124 win over the pesky Pelicans who wouldn't go away. With two games remaining before the end of 2024, the Grizzlies record in December is 9-3 and this stat tells the story of how that record came about.
Undefeated when scoring over 60 points in the first half
The Grizzlies are undefeated in December when they have scored over 60 points in the first half and are 0-3 when they haven't. This stat isn't a foregone conclusion of the Grizzlies' struggles because two of those three games saw them score just under 60 points in the first half (57 points vs. the Dallas Mavericks and 58 points vs. the Los Angeles Clippers).
The unorthodox nature of the Grizzlies' constant motion offense that doesn't involve much pick-and-roll action is blitzing teams to begin the game and making it hard for them to recover later in the game. They have the type of offense where plugging and playing guys in the regular season doesn't allow them to miss much of a beat as long as they have enough healthy bodies to continue the intense pace.
Furthermore, the Grizzlies are undefeated in December when they have scored over 120 points and 0-3 when they have scored less than 120. Their three losses saw them score 116 against the Mavericks, and 110 against both Los Angeles teams (Lakers and Clippers). If the month of December told the world anything about the Grizzlies it's that slowing down their offense isn't easy but their three losses have come against physical teams.
While going 9-3 this month and winning 14 out of their last 17 games going back to November has put the Grizzlies back into the NBA's elite territory, they have one last hurdle to get over to stamp themselves as the Western Conference-best.