{"id":135517,"date":"2025-04-21T07:49:40","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T11:49:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=135517"},"modified":"2025-04-21T07:51:01","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T11:51:01","slug":"ja-morant-responds-grizzlies-blowout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/21\/ja-morant-responds-grizzlies-blowout\/","title":{"rendered":"Ja Morant Expects to Bounce Back After Grizzlies Blowout Loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Going up against the number one seed as an eighth seed is never an easy task. For the\u00a0<\/span>Memphis Grizzlies<\/span><\/a>, that is their reality for the next three games unless they can push their round one playoff series against the\u00a0<\/span>Oklahoma City Thunder <\/span><\/a>past four games. The Thunder are no ordinary one-seed; they’re one of the most dominating one-seeds the league has seen in recent years. Memphis can only blame themselves for being in this position to begin with, but it’s one they must deal with, and it didn’t start off well with their 51-point loss to OKC over the weekend. It was a terrible game across the board. However, Grizzlies star\u00a0<\/span>Ja Morant<\/span><\/a>\u00a0is committed to bouncing back in game two and swore his team would perform better.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ja Morant Expects to Bounce Back After Grizzlies Blowout Loss<\/h2>\n

Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant makes adamant promise heading into game two against OKC Thunder<\/h3>\n

Memphis barely made it out of the pay-in round after losing their first game against the\u00a0<\/span>Golden State Warriors<\/span><\/a>. What is puzzling is that months before the regular season ended, the Grizzlies were one of the top seeds in the Western Conference. They fell and fell <\/span>hard,<\/span> and eventually landed outside the playoff picture. The fall included Taylor Jenkins being fired as the head coach. Memphis’s chances against OKC are barely alive, but they might be better if the experienced Jenkins were still in his seat. Nevertheless, the Grizzlies are already in a hole and have their first opportunity to dig themselves out on Tuesday in game two.<\/span><\/p>\n

For that to happen, game two must go differently than game one, where only two Grizzlies put up double digits in points: Morant and\u00a0<\/span>Marvin Bagley III<\/span><\/a>. While it’s fine to congratulate Bagley on his 17-point performance, he’s hardly the player Memphis needs in double digits. <\/span>Jaren Jackson Jr<\/span><\/a>.,\u00a0<\/span>Desmond Bane<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>Scotty Pippen Jr<\/span><\/a>., and\u00a0<\/span>Zach Edey<\/span><\/a>\u00a0combined for 19 points\u2014all four round out Memphis’s starting five beside Morant. JJJ had finished with just four points, three rebounds, and two assists\u2014far and away from how dominant he can be on the court. Overall, Memphis appeared empty and non-competitive.<\/span><\/p>\n

Following the blowout, Morant stated, “<\/span>We will never play that bad again.<\/span><\/em>” Memphis isn’t going to win this series. To take it one step further, they might not win a single game. That said, they can<\/em> play better, should<\/em> play better, and if Morant has any say in it, they will<\/em> play better.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jaren Jackson Jr. must step up<\/h3>\n

The key to Memphis being competitive in this series is Jackson Jr. He is arguably the best big man in this series. While Edey has the size and strength in the paint, JJJ has the same, but the offensive skill and versatility to add. He is the key for the Grizzlies to have a better game two. Morant can go out and put up 30 points, but Jackson Jr.’s impact has to be much louder. He went just 2-13 in game one, including 0-4 from three, and recorded zero blocks. That is not your typical JJJ performance, and like Morant, he knows it too. Expect him and Morant, along with the others, to come ready to play on Tuesday, even if it’s another loss, which it likely will be.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a9 Petre Thomas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Going up against the number one seed as an eighth seed is never an easy task. For the\u00a0Memphis Grizzlies, that is their reality for the next three games unless they can push their round one playoff series against the\u00a0Oklahoma City Thunder past four games. The Thunder are no ordinary one-seed; they’re one of the most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5081,"featured_media":135518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,1608,62],"tags":[3127,1822,1948,1418,49058,4741],"class_list":["post-135517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grizzlies","category-basketball","category-nba","tag-desmond-bane","tag-ja-morant","tag-jaren-jackson-jr","tag-marvin-bagley-iii","tag-scotty-pippen-jr","tag-zach-edey"],"modified_by":"Aaron J Zacharias","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5081"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135517"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135525,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135517\/revisions\/135525"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}