The Grizzlies’ five-game losing streak is over with a comeback win against the Indiana Pacers, 112-100, at FedExForum, Sunday night.
After falling behind by as many as 19 points in the first half, the Grizzlies staged their biggest comeback victory of the season by outscoring the Pacers 62-38 in the second.
The Grizzlies have the best home winning percentage (.875) in the NBA after improving to 21-3 at home this season. Memphis has now won eight consecutive games at FedExForum, a season best.
Jaren Jackson Jr. led all scorers with 28 points, and added eight rebounds and five blocks in a season-high 38 minutes. And the blocks were real; more on that later.
“Tonight is a product of him just being aggressive, his teammates finding him,” said Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins on Jackson’s touches in the game.
“There was a lot of dialogue about opportunities for him,” added Jenkins. “They were switching, he was doing a good job running the floor, getting early post-up touches, then we made some calls and he just had great poise, in that post-up game. Even kicked it out a couple of times, just missed some shots but really impressive what he did on the offensive side to back up what he did defensively.”
Jackson acknowledged the importance of the team stopping the losing streak. He said, “Very important. You know, make sure you stop the bleeding. Coming together, and I think maybe coming home, helped for sure. Yeah man, put it together. It’s important. Feels good.”
With 27 points, 10 boards, and 15 assists, Ja Morant recorded his second straight triple-double and his fifth triple-double of the season. Morant logged 40 minutes while playing the entire second half. It was Morant’s ninth career regular season triple-double. It was the second time in franchise history a Griz player had accomplished the feat two games in a row. Delon Wright did it April 5-7, 2019.
“It just shows when we play our basketball and play with some energy, majority of the time, we win basketball games,” said Morant on getting his swag back after the losing streak. Tonight, obviously showed us we are capable of it, and we just got to continue to do it from start to finish.”
In his third-straight start, Brandon Clarke had 13 points while going 5-of-5 from the field.
Xavier Tillman Sr. finished with nine points and a season-high 11 rebounds, including a career-high eight offensive rebounds.
Conspiracy
A Redditt user sent NBA Twitter and the betting world in a frenzy with a bogus claim that the Grizzlies’ scorekeeper was inflating Jackson’s steals and blocks at home. The NBA and media members refuted the claims quickly.
The NBA issued a statement backing the Grizzlies’ scorekeepers and stressing that game action and statistics are evaluated in real time.
Jenkins had this to say about the conspiracy, “Foolish — NBA made a statement. Conspiracy, conspiracy. [Jaren Jackson Jr.] is one of the best defensive players in the game. So lucky to have him on our team.”
Jackson addressed the conspiracy after the game. He said, “That was good. I thought that was pretty funny. I didn’t really understand it at first. I saw that I beat the case, so that was dope. It was just lighting up group chats on my phone, you know how it is when your homies are letting you know. I’m getting texts like, ‘You good?’ or whatever, and I’m like half asleep, still don’t even know what’s going on.”
Yes, JJJ you beat the case.
Up Next
The Grizzlies will host the Portland Trailblazers on Wednesday night with an early 6pm CT tip-off time.
