The Grizzlies kicked off a four-game road trip Friday night against the top-ranked Utah Jazz. Ultimately, Memphis would lose the contest 117-114, but not until after cutting down a 21-point lead by Utah.
There isn’t a lot of negative things to say about the way the Grizzlies played, quite the contrary. But there is a reason that the Jazz are currently sitting at the top of the NBA rankings, and it was on full display Friday night.
In position-to-position matchups, there was a familiar face squaring off against Ja Morant, former Grizzly Mike Conley.
Morant would easily win that matchup against Conley, but the real power player for the Jazz was guard Donovan Mitchell. Like most teams, Memphis didn’t have an answer for Mitchell who led all scorers with 35 points. Whatever the answer is for Mitchell, it very much isn’t Grayson Allen.
The loss to the Jazz snapped a three-game Grizzlies winning streak. Utah currently leads the league with 18 consecutive wins on their home court. The Grizzlies will get another chance to upset that streak as they face off against the Jazz for the second night in a row.
Memphis head coach Taylor Jenkins had this to say in the postgame interview:
“Hope we can bounce back, fill our cup, learn from this one. Guys competed great, heck of a ball game. Let’s go have another good one tomorrow.”
By the Numbers:
Ja Morant finished with a team-high 32 points and 11 assists. Morant made a little franchise history, becoming just the fourth Grizzlies player to record multiple 30 + point, 10 + assist games.
Dillon Brooks had a good scoring night, closing out with 22 points. Brooks managed to stay out of foul trouble as well, something he has long struggled with.
Jonas Valanciunas made his presence felt on the glass more than the scoreboard, scoring 14 points and racking up a game-high 18 rebounds.
Grayson Allen played his fifth consecutive game in the starting lineup and finished the night with 17 points and 5 rebounds, including 5 of 9 from 3-point range.
Brandon Clarke led the bench in scoring with 13 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists.
Who Got Next?
The Grizzlies will run it back against the Jazz Saturday, March 27th, with tip-off at 8 PM CST
