Ja Morant, Desmond Bane and Jaren Jackson Jr. are the undisputed leaders for the Memphis Grizzlies, a core that ranks among the best in the NBA.
But through the team’s first 19 games this season, the trio has found itself on the floor at the same time on only three occasions. The last gathering came in the Grizzlies’ 25-point home victory over the Portland Trail Blazers Monday night.
In Wednesday’s 20-point home win over the Detroit Pistons, Morant was missing, the victim of a knee injury that Memphis coach Taylor Jenkins didn’t deem too worrisome. At some point, Jenkins and the Grizzlies would like to see how the team operates Morant, Bane and Jenkins Jr. operating together for a lengthy stretch of games.
Perhaps that run will begin Friday when the Grizzlies meet the visiting New Orleans Pelicans in an NBA Cup game.
The Grizzlies – with or without their core three – have been on a recent roll. Wednesday’s victory over the Pistons was the team’s fourth straight and its eighth in the past 11 games.
Morant returned Monday after an eight-game absence due to a hip injury to join Bane, who had missed several games earlier this month with a strained right oblique, and Jackson, the team’s leading scorer.
In the lopsided win over the Trail Blazers, Morant played as if he hadn’t missed nearly a month. He directed the Grizzlies to a wire-to-wire victory, scoring 20 of his 22 points in the first half. He finished with 11 assists.
Jenkins is expecting Morant back soon.
“His engagement, even when he’s out, you all don’t get to see the work that he’s putting in,” Jenkins said. “This past week was some of the best work I’d seen from him via the return-to-play process because he wants to be out there so badly. His engagement with his teammates, his voice in the locker room, film sessions, and on the sidelines, he was champing at the bit to get out there.”
Without Morant, the Grizzlies have held their own by relying on a deep bench led by the play of backup point guard Scotty Pippen Jr. In last weekend’s road win at Chicago, Pippen Jr. scored a career-high 30 points and added 10 rebounds. In Wednesday’s victory, Pippen finished with 19 points and seven rebounds. The Memphis bench players scored 71 points.
“[We’re] still learning a lot. I’ve been really impressed with Scotty’s development, playing some lineups with Des and Luke [Kennard] together,” he said. “Playmaking through Jaren, we wanted to create an offense that has five creators out there at all times that are in attack mode.”
Against a struggling, injury-plagued New Orleans team, Memphis will be seeking its first NBA Cup victory in the two years of the in-season tournament. The Pelicans are 2-12 in November and have lost six straight.
In Wednesday’s 119-93 home loss to the Toronto Raptors, the Pelicans were booed by their fans in the third quarter when they fell behind by 30.
“We allowed a team to come on our home floor and make us look soft,” New Orleans coach Willie Green said. “I told our group that can’t happen. That was a lack of competition.”
Dejounte Murray returned after missing 17 straight games with a fractured left hand he suffered in the Oct. 23 season-opener against the Chicago Bulls.
New Orleans remains without star Zion Williamson (hamstring), but hope to have Brandon Ingram (right calf soreness) and Trey Murphy (left knee contusion) back against Memphis.
