Ja Morant TALKS, the Memphis Grizzlies WALK – but Jokic and the Nuggets loom large

It’s a Monday episode of Locked on Grizzlies. The Grizzlies are streaking. They’re not going through the quad, though. They’re running through the NBA, at least as much as you can when you’re not playing your best basketball. Two wins in a row, but that might stop pretty abruptly tonight as the Denver Nuggets are the team that Memphis squares off with. And John got into some sort of squabble with Klay Thompson over the weekend. We’re going to talk about that and more on this edition of the podcast. To Michael Cole is here, Joe Mullen is here. You’re here. That’s what’s most important. Let’s lock in. You are Locked On Grizzlies, your daily Memphis Grizzlies podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Thank you so much for being with us on this Monday edition of Locked On Grizzlies. It is I, Joe Mullenax, Memphis Grizzlies senior contributor over at Bee Street. I saw I saw that partner. Congratulations. Oh, you know, I I just there’s What is retirement, right? I don’t know. You’re like you remind me of uh of of of Brett Favre when I was a little kid um like 06 07 and he kept saying, “Oh, I’m retiring.” And then I get sad then he’d come back and then Aaron Rogers happened. But uh you you you just you just can’t leave, Joe. Like you you you can’t put the pen down. You you can’t stop typing, man. I’m more like Ric Flair uh of Pro. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That’s that’s the better example. I should have used the wrestling analogy. That would have been better. Like I feel like I wrote some really good stuff at the end of GBB at SP Nation and that’s probably when I should have retired. And I think I’m still a decent writer, but you know, I’m kind of like Ric Flair and TNA right now. You know, shoving forks into my head and that sort of thing. And I’m going too deep into the wrestling analogy. Uh thank you so much for being with us on this edition of the show, this episode of Lockdown Grizzlies, brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Head to fanduel.com to get started. We’re free and available wherever you get podcast as proud members of the Lockdown Podcast Network, the number one sports podcast network out there. We are so grateful to be a part of the Lockdown Podcast Network family and we’re so glad that you’re here with us. Whether it’s Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Google, YouTube, wherever you check out the show, make sure you’re interacting. Make sure you’re hitting up to Michael Memphis Grizzlies beat writer for the commercial appeal to Michael Cole at Michael C my co-host. Make sure you’re hitting me up at Joe Mullenax if you see fit. Make it live in the comments. Make those uh wonderful little comments dance. Put us in the place that we belong in your hearts and minds as we enter the holiday season. Be a part of our little corner of the internet we like to call lockdown grizzlies. Be an everydayer if you’re not already one. to Michael Cole. Haven’t been together in a while. Again, it’s a crazy time of year. Lots going on. I am excited to have this ch chance to chat with you. We’ll talk about the craziness of John Marant and Klay Thompson and Clay getting very upset over a guy in street clothes calling him a bum, but we’ll talk about that in a bit. We’re going to lead off with the actual basketball that transpired over the weekend. The Memphis Grizzlies winning, the Memphis Grizzlies streaking. That’s two victories in a row. Granted, it’s against the hapless Kings and the slightly less hless Dallas Mavericks, but I do think it’s important to point out that Dallas is better than Sacramento and the Grizzlies were in Dallas and they found a way to pull out that victory. Zack Edy continues to look the part of the most important current Grizzly. And they did it without Cedric Coward hitting a three-point shot. They did it in a way that Vince Williams Jr. continued to show his facilitation skills. It felt sustainable. And again, I realize how crazy that is. I was starting to throw dirt on the corpse that was the 2025, 2026 Grizzlies a couple episodes back. I’m not ready to Superman them yet and have them, you know, rise up from the ashes like a phoenix. But Zack Edy, as crazy as it sounds, looks like he was that freaking important to Michael Cole. You know, Joe, you you know why you just said all those things about how it looked and why you’re not ready to, you know, kind of uh give up on these guys yet? It it it’s one word that comes to mind uh for me here. And and I guess I guess it’s a phrase, however you want to look at it, but identity. What we’ve talked about this, we’ve talked about the fact that the Grizzlies have looked like a team lacking an identity up to this point in this season. And now based off what we’ve seen over these last couple games, I wrote about this a little bit myself, it at least when you look at them now, there is a plausible route to say this is how this group is going to win. They’re going to have to play really hard. Uh they have these perimeter defenders in Cedric Cow, Vince Williams, Jaylen Wells that they’re going to have to really swarm you. They’re going to have to make plays and then they’re going to have to get the ball to the big fell. They’re going to have to feed Zack Edy and they’re going to have to dominate you on the glass, which they’ve been able to. They’re going to have to play physical. Like where has this been? They’ve just been playing basketball for vibes, it’s felt like, and and the vibes haven’t been good. But at least over the last couple games, you’re starting to see an identity. You’re starting to see a team that, okay, you can see that, oh, look, there’s a physical brand of basketball being played there. You’re starting to see, you know, they just won the uh rebounding battle, 61 to 41, 29 second chance points uh to 12. Like, that’s becoming a familiar theme now. We’re starting to see them be this dominant rebounding team. And it’s like, okay, these are the strengths. Because there weren’t clear strengths early in the season. It was like, okay, you think they got really good guard play. You think uh they got strong perimeter defenders, but now it’s more of you’re starting to see some things uh take shape. And to your point, you know, the Dallas Mavericks, they they aren’t exactly world beaters, right? But I will say this, despite Dallas’s struggles up to this point in the season, they have been a good defensive unit. Uh they’ve been terrible offensively, so there is that. I’m, you know, the Grizzlies have kind of swarmed the two bad offenses in the last couple games. So, yeah, whatever that. But Dallas is a really good defensive team. So, I went into that game thinking, okay, how can the Grizzlies score in this game? Like, Sacramento is three, four steps below what Dallas is defensively. And uh it it was a decent performance all things considered. And and the reason that I say that is you have to pretty much understand at this point this offense isn’t going to have too many nights where they’re shooting 55% from the field and just filling it up from the basket is you you don’t have the guys right now. You don’t have your offensive firepower available. So with that being the case, how do you still put yourself in an advantage situation on the offensive end? It’s winning the possessions battle. It’s creating turnovers. It’s getting those offensive rebounds. 29 second chance points. That’s identity to me, Joe. That’s identity. That’s knowing that, hey, we can’t be the top offensive unit in the NBA. We We don’t got a a fiveman group that’s going to go out there and shoot 50% consistently. But guess what? To make up for it, we know we’re going to miss shots, so let’s clean up some of those shots and give ourselves a second chance. That’s what they’re doing, Joe. And that’s how they’re creating an identity. Second game in a row that Santi Alama as a starter did a really good job. 20 points, eight rebounds. He was that offensive spark that you were talking about when the Grizzlies needed him most. On a much smaller scale, Tumaselo, if the team is ever healthy, which you know at this point they never will be, but let’s assume they will eventually some magical day in the future, there will be a healthy Grizzlies roster. JB Bickerstaff, old friend of Memphis, he currently is employing a 12man rotation with the Detroit Pistons because Jane Ivy’s coming back. Where are you going with this, Joe? Where where let me let me cook here for a second as the kids say. Let me cook. All right. Davy Vicker staff has a 12-man rotation, right? How long is that going to last? Who knows? But that’s what he’s trying to do as the Pistons get healthy. And that’s impressive for one of the best teams in the NBA so far this season. The fact they haven’t been healthy, right? We talked about that before with that identity conversation. Vince Williams Jr. looks good. That looks like the dude that you and I wanted to be the starter last year. This is what we’ve been talking about, Joe. When people were saying, “Oh, oh, y’all still hanging on to this Vince Vince Williams Jr. stock?” This is who we were talking about right here. And I lost a little bit of that stock. I do believe I said I would cut Vince Williams Jr. I couldn’t believe you, but but you Yeah, I I lost some of the stock. I’m acknowledging the mistake. Okay, Vince Williams Jr. is back. Pride of Rich Pride of VCU. Sorry. Go Rams. Go. But my point is Vince Williams Jr. looks really good. Cam Spencer looks really good in terms of what he’s bringing off of the bench. Once a Scotty Pippen Jr., once a John Morant, once a Ty Jerome again, assuming they ever are. Once this team is close to healthy, who gets cut out of the mix? We don’t have to worry about that right this second. It’s a good problem to have. But these minutes, these reps that have been so frustrating to start the campaign, they seem to be paying dividends and guys getting into a rhythm. Yeah. Exactly. And and I I look at it like, okay, you know, it’s the first five games of the season, then you got the the next five games, and then you got the next five games, and now you’re at a point where we’re starting to build up, you know, the bigger sample size. This is what we talked about earlier, you know, uh a in a couple weeks ago. the idea that, okay, the sample size isn’t big enough to make such demonstrative statements about what this team is, what this team is lacking, the strengths, the weaknesses, because these things, you know, there’s es and flows over the course of an 82 game NBA season. We’ve seen weeks, you know, where certain guys look like MVP candidates and then the next week they come back down to earth and it’s like, yeah, that’s that’s exactly who I thought they were. But right now, yeah, to to your point, like I feel like we’re starting to see a lot of guys get opportunities. Like we didn’t talk a lot in the preseason about Cam Spencer getting these type of opportunities. Most of the conversation about Cam Spencer was about the shooting that he could bring to this team a after losing a Luke Canard, after losing a Desmond Bane. So, we’re starting to see some of that. We saw a lot of it in the fourth quarter, you know, in that that Dallas win, but his other players, you know, taking advantage of opportunities, right? You know, when Vince Williams came back from the injury, you know, there was a question like where will he fit into the rotation? Now Joe, you got some people and this we we’ll save this conversation for another day because you got some people saying, “I don’t know, man. Vince Williams Jr. might not be need to be taken out of that starting lineup when some guys get back.” So you you got you got a lot going on uh here, but but I do think some guys are taking advantage of it. But here’s where I stand when it comes to this rotation stuff. It always takes care of itself. It’s always going to take care of itself because at the end of the day, some guys who are playing well right now aren’t going to be playing well later. Uh, and health is health. Like we’ll see if how many how many people are going to be healthy over the course of the stretch of time. These things always take care of the sales. And right now I look at it as like, okay, you go with what’s working right now. You know, Vince Williams Jr. is pretty much your best playmaker that you have available. You know that, you know, Jaylen Wells is starting to knock down some shots. Cedric Cow has been pretty reliable for you even though he didn’t have his greatest game, you know, against Dallas. Probably the first dud that he’s had like this whole regular season. That’s how consistent he’s been. So, and you know you’re going to, you know, these guys can really rebound the basketball when you throw Cedric Coward. Vince Williams Jr. He just had a double double with rebounds. And then Zack Edy, are you got I don’t know. Some people were saying this Grizzlies team didn’t have some dogs. I’m starting to see some dogs emerge. Got some dogs coming back out there. Absolutely. Lots of angles we can take going into the end of November, beginning of December. Like the fact that Zack Ed’s return is what has sparked this. Friendly reminder, John Morant was on the court to start the season. Jiren Jackson Jr. has played a decent amount of basketball this season. And yet, it’s the sophomore big man who appears to have sparked things in a positive direction for the Grizzlies. And in the game against Alice, both Jiren and Jaw were out, right? Same thing with Sacramento, too. Uh, so lots of interesting things to go through there, and I’m sure we will continue to tackle those topics uh later on down the road. Hit up to Michael at to Michael C. Let me know on X at Joe Mullenx. How are you feeling about that win? a good victory for the Grizzlies. The the competition increases a little bit going into the game on Monday night, but it’s still nice to uh have that win, right? You’ll take a win anyway you can get them uh at this stage of the game for the Memphis Grizzlies. When we come back, a little bit of a squabble, a little bit of a a I don’t know, a brewhaha if you will, between John Morant and Klay Thompson. Uh these two guys don’t like each other. We’re going to talk a little bit more about it coming up next here on Lockdown Grizzlies. This episode of Lockdown Grizzlies is brought to you by Gusto. Let’s be real, no one starts a business for the joy of calculating tax withholdings or managing payroll spreadsheets. That’s where Gusto comes in to take the stress out of payroll, benefits, and HR so you can focus on running your business and supporting your team. Gusto is the all-in-one remote friendly payroll and HR platform that makes managing your team simple, transparent, and easy and fast. Whether you are hiring, onboarding, or paying employees, Gusto helps you do it all from one place without the hassle or hidden fees, Gusto’s automated tools like offer letters, onboarding materials, and direct deposits save you hours every week. And knowing that you can reach certified HR experts anytime gives you real peace of mind. Try Gusto today at gusto.comlockdonba and get three months free when you run your first payroll. That’s right, three months of free payroll at gusto.comlockdownba. one more time. That’s gusto.com/lockedonba. Today’s episode of Locked on Grizzly is also brought to you by Wayfair. The holiday season is right around the corner. That means it is time to get your home ready. Whether you are needing more seating for guests, cozy new linens, or fun serveware for holiday hosting, Wayfair’s Black Friday sale is here to help you make your space shine. And the best part, you don’t have to wait. Wayfair’s Black Friday deals are happening all month long with up to 70% off everything from sofas to spatulas. I couldn’t believe how fast these items shipped with Wayfair. My wife is a huge fan of the site. We hop on just in time for the holidays. Spruce things up, hosting holiday parties, all those sorts of things. If you’ve ever hosted family for the holidays, take it from me, it can be a hassle, but a good hassle, right? You want folks to come in and feel nice and warm in the company and comfort of your home. New touches can make a huge difference and Wayfair makes that easy. Don’t miss out on early Black Friday deals. Head to wayfair.com now to shop Wayfair’s Black Friday sale for up to 70% off. That’s w afir.com. Sale ends December 7th. Welcome back to Lockdown Grizzlies. This is a small corner, a small piece of the number one sports podcast network out there. That is the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day. very proud to be part of that with my good buddy Demich Cole, Memphis Grizzlies beat writer for the Commercial Appeal, my co-host here on the pod. And Demich, you and I texted a little bit about this over the weekend and it was frustration on my part uh in a variety of ways. It started with John Morant, for those of you that missed it, we’ll give you the uh the Spark Notes version here. John Morant was talking trash to Klay Thompson. If you remember correctly, or maybe you don’t, Klay Thompson has had an issue with the Grizzlies for several years going back to the Warriors days. Uh he called Jiren Jackson Jr. a bum. There was that infamous the Code playoff series which was utterly ridiculous. Uh you know, Steve Kerr making a fool of himself with Dylan Brooks and the Code. Um all sorts of different things going some bad blood has existed for years and it’s clearly carried over to Clay on the Dallas Mavericks. John Morant of course did not play in the contest. pointed saying, “You’re a bum.” He said some other things that I will not repeat because this is a family show. Um, very clear that Klay Thompson, John Morant don’t like each other. I wish Jaw wouldn’t have said anything. And I do believe that is what I said to you in no uncertain terms. I wish Jaw would have just kind of kept to himself, but that’s not who Jaw is, right? We can accept or not accept. That’s up to you, I suppose. But Jarant’s a part of the organization and John Mor is going to be Jawar for better or for worse, right? Klay Thompson has this millennial fatherhood speech about, oh, you know, jaw, I wish he could play more and you know, I just expect more out of him as a star in the league. Like that kind of the paraphrase Klay Thompson there. And the national media takes off and runs with this to Michael and that is where my frustration is now. Initially, my frustration was God just you don’t have to talk, right? You don’t have to do this. You’re not playing. They’re in the game. You’re not. Leave Clay alone, please. But for Clay to come out and for the national media in particular, it feels like all of the stuff from the past all over again with the gun celebrations, which was stupid, too. And this is even more stupid because this is something trash talk happens in literally every NBA game. And I know you know that, partner, because you’re their courtside for at least 41 of them every freaking season. It happens literally every game. And it feels like this is another example. There were no think pieces when Kevin Durant was talking crap uh during the Houston Rockets game when the Grizzlies were in town. There’s no narratives being driven when teams are, you know, pointing and laughing at the bench after a three is made. Like, why does it have to be John Morant? It It’s like they’re searching for clicks and it’s frustrating. This is not anything shocking. It might be frustrating, but it’s not something that should warrant a think piece. Don’t you agree? I I I just don’t understand the concept of policing trash talk. Now, now let let me preface this by saying I am one of those guys who uh I love trash talk. I’m fairly anti- trash talk. This is where you and I differ probably one of the most places. I love it. I love it. As long as there’s a respectfulness, you know, going on, I I I’m okay with it. You know, talk talk, you know, talk your stuff, whatever you want to say to guys in between the lines, that’s all fair and games. You know, long as you’re not getting personal or things like that. Like, if I’m just telling you about how much you suck as a basketball player to me to get into your head, I’m all for it. As long as I can back up, you know, my end of the stick. And I think that’s kind of where some people probably had problem with Josh talking. It’s like he’s on the bench, he’s why is he being involved? But guess what? Oh, he’s in the mix of arguably the worst season of his of his career so far. Yeah. Why he’s in midst of one of his worst seasons. So from that standpoint, if I’m John, I’m probably not talking right now cuz it’s like, okay, I I don’t really got too much to say right now. But just from the idea of just talking trash. I did it when I played. So, who am I to to to say uh someone shouldn’t talk trash? I used to remember the names of guys girlfriends when they come up to bat so I can so I can say their girlfriend’s names when they step into the bears box and I’m at catch Michael Cole. Oh I it it get real in the field. It gets real in the field. So but but let’s get baseball field. Yeah. You got it’s a mental game. Joe as a coach you probably were one of the coaches that say this. It’s 90% mental 10% physical right? That’s is it’s I’m the one that tells them the scoreboard does the talking. You don’t have to say a That’s boring. That’s That’s No, no, you you you do a little bit of talking and then the scoreboard backs up what you’re saying. So, here’s where I I had a conversation with Klay Thompson. You remember in 2023 when he was with the Warriors and this was kind of at the height of the Golden State Warriors Grizzlies rivalry and all the trash talk. Like, you think they were trash talking the other day. This is when Desmond Bane, Dylan Brooks, um, in addition to Jaw, like it was it was a lot worse. It was a lot worse. And here’s one of the things that stood out to me, and this was just me and Klay Thompson talking, just sitting off to the side talking. And he said, “At the end of the day, it’s all just competitive fun. If you want to talk trash, it’s all part of the game. We all grew up talking miss. You can’t hoop without talking a little miss.” I love that. And I agree. So my thing is, you know, you’re talking trash and to to based on what Klay Thompson said here, he didn’t take much of what Josh said personal from the standpoint of, you know, like like personally hurting his feelings. I think it was just more so job being hurt, being on the bench and coming up talking to him and it’s like, “You really want to talk to me?” And then it was the heat of the moment, right? Clay had already gotten a technical foul. Um, he got into it with Vince Williams earlier. Then there was Santi Alama and the whole Cooper flag ankle thing. Like it was all these events combined together. Uh there was also kind of the misconstrued situation of John Morant talking about uh Cam Spencer and and Klay Thompson or Cam Spencer and Pat Spencer actually uh when he made the comment about, you know, tell them who’s the best shooter in the uh in the house. It’s not bro from Golden State. It is a fun way to figure out who’s into the NBA deep cut edition though. It is. Forgive people that don’t necessarily get that joke, but I understood that reference because I am into the NBA defense. That’s good for you. I It went over my head uh initially. It it it went over my head initially and and you know, I I I uh made up for my mistakes uh on that part, but yeah, he was definitely uh alluding to the brother, right? So, I think that part of it I already kind of cuz that was the part that was getting aggregated the most and it kind of, you know, put the narrative out there that people want to be against y’all. But yo, I I don’t look at this situation as some big indictment of who Jaw is or or a chance to be a aha moment. Like he hasn’t grown up yet. Like I saw some people trying to say. It’s like come on there. Like if you want to point out the locker room thing, like I’m fair. I keep it real. Like you want to point out the locker room. Okay. We can we can talk about how he handled that, you know, a little bit. We can we can have a conversation about that. But this like trash talk. Um man, I have no problem with trash talk. again, as long as it’s respectful, as long as you know, like I I used to like that about Draymond, but Draymond, you know, he’s he’s he’s gone off on the wild side a little bit. But uh but yeah, I’m all cool with trash talk. I didn’t take too much from it, Josh. I was really surprised at the discourse that came. Yeah, it was ridiculous. But you can take comfort in knowing, partner, that at least you didn’t insinuate that Zach Ed learned how to do a drop step move in the in the NBA. Uh, you know, me as a middle school who better watch your back in the mean streets of Purdue. They’re they’re going to come looking for me if I’m ever in that in that part of the country. Uh, let Demichel know at Deichel C. Hit me up at Joe Molenax. How are you feeling about this? Demich and I are on the same page here. It’s J and Jaw and and then I used to play basketball. I played more basketball in my life than I played football. That was Joe and Joe had a mean drop step. I I did have a mean drop step. I was basically Shaquille O’Neal in middle school. People don’t know. Or maybe maybe Zach Edy learned a thing or two from my tape back in eighth grade. Who knows? But when we come back here on Locked on Grizzlies, we’re going to close out this episode of the show talking about dominant big men. From Joe Mullenax to Nicola Joic. The Denver Nuggets are going to be a handful for the Memphis Grizzlies. Can the streaking Memphis squad stand up to the Joker? Let’s talk about it next. Stick around. This episode of Lockdown Grizzlies is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA is back and there is no better place to get in on the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the National Basketball Association. Even if you missed the start of the game or you want to ride the hot hand, FanDuel has live bets on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks. Maybe you pay attention to the podcast here. Maybe you heard Michael Cole talking about the rebounding of Zack Edy. Maybe you want to ride that hot hand, push him over 10 rebounds in the contest coming up. That’s an option among many others over at FanDuel. Plus, you can even combine live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. It keeps every game exciting, especially when your team is making that late push. Right now, FanDuel is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So head to fanduel.com, sign up and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the National Basketball Association. Closing out this Monday edition of Locked On Grizzlies, Demich and myself. Very excited to continue on this week. Uh spoiler alert for coverage purposes. We will have a Thursdayish edition of the podcast and then we’re going to be off the rest of the week for the holidays. Shout out to Thanksgiving. Uh but you know, you’ll have us Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. We’ll be here with you and then a nice long weekend to to celebrate Turkey Day here in the United States. Uh but we have some basketball to watch and cover before we get to that wonderful holiday where we all uh celebrate food essentially in the United States and football and family. Um being grateful for a Grizzlies winning streak that probably is going to come to an end tonight. And I don’t want to be too much of a negative, Nancy, because the Memphis Grizzlies are doing so well of late, but there’s a difference between playing the Sacramento Kings, the Dallas Mavericks, and the opponent for the Memphis Grizzlies on this night. We are talking about the Denver Nuggets. And yes, it is going to be a game that Memphis is at home. And yes, it is a chance for the Grizzlies to potentially welcome Jiren Jackson Jr. back into the fold. He’s questionable for the game as of this recording. So maybe Jiren is back on the court adding some needed depth for the Grizzlies. Some star power, some isolation scoring. Deichel, I know you know this because you follow the NBA as close as anybody. Nicola Joic might be having the best season of his career and that is a terrifying thing to say out loud because this man is a multi-time MVP. They were trying I I saw an argument on social media trying to say that you know you know is this the season Joic passes Durk? That happened two years ago. Like I don’t know what people are talking about. Dirk Nitzky was phenomenal. Be careful, man. Nick might be listening. You be careful. Nicolai Joic is a top 10 player in the NBA history right now in my opinion. He’s probably 10 or nine, but I don’t know. He’s won multiple MVPs. He’s won a championship and he continues to get better. He is the most skilled big potentially. I’m not gonna throw that out there definitively in the history of the National Basketball Association and he is coming to town. What is Zack Edy going to be able to do? It’s going to be a fascinating matchup. We’re talking about a player in Joic who’s shooting 63% from the field. Deichel 63%. The Nuggets look legit. Now they’re dealing with some injuries on their own, right? Aaron Gordon and some other injuries that could impact Denver. But again, this is going to be different than Sacramento and Dallas. This is definitely going to be different than Sacramento and Dallas. You talk about Denver, they’ve uh pretty much been the second best team in the West. They’re third in the NBA in point differential now. So, they’re putting it on teams and it’s really hard to uh kind of beat them. You mentioned the fact that Jokic is playing so well. But I don’t want to talk about this game from the standpoint of let’s just chalk it up as an L because there is something that is really intriguing to me about this matchup uh that I really want to focus on uh as we watch it. And to me that’s fourth quarter execution for the Grizzlies. Uh even if you go back before the two wins, if you go back to the Cleveland game where John Morant got hurt, the Grizzlies were right there fourth quarter. You go back to the San Antonio Spurs game, they led 101 100 I believe it was. Uh and the Spurs went on the 110 run to close the game out. And then the last two games were a little bit different, right? Uh the Kings games was a was a blowout. You didn’t really have to worry about the fourth quarter uh in that situation. And Dallas Mavericks are just a horrible offense. So, uh it’s not like, you know, they had a De’Aran Fox as a closer or a Donovan Mitchell, you know, as a closer, you know, like those teams did. This team has a closer. this team has arguably the closer uh in the NBA of the Nuggets. So, we’ve seen the Grizzlies kind of look a little bit better on the offensive end. We’ve seen the idea that Vince Williams Jr. has said, “I got to get the ball to the big fella. I got to get the ball to Zack Edy.” Uh I want to see how that translate to late in the fourth quarter because that’s when team defense is going to be playing as hard as they can play. And with the Nuggets defense, that’s uh a particular point uh that I wanted to touch on because if you look at the Nuggets, uh I don’t know the exact numbers off the top of my head here, but there is a drastic gap in their defense in terms of when they’re playing the lower tier teams into when they’re playing the elite teams. When they’re playing the elite teams, they’re top five defense. when they play lower tier teams in the league, uh, they tend to take a step back, tend to take a step off, and they still win a lot of those games, but they clearly have another gear that they can get to. In the fourth quarter is usually when any team that has that extra gear, especially one with some players that have been there and done that like this team has, they get to that extra gear in the fourth quarter. I think this is going to be a game where the Grizzlies potentially hang around, you know, for those first three quarters. And it’s going to come down to what can we do in the fourth quarter? Can we find a way to execute? Because you don’t have a lot of individual scorers who can go get theirs. Now, if Jiren Jackson Jr. plays, he’s capable of doing that. We saw in that Spurs game, I believe he was 06 in the fourth quarter or something like that. Like he he completely missed the bed in that one. But in this case, you you would like to think that Jiren Jackson Jr. is someone that you can go to in those situations. There’s no Aaron Gordon. Pton Watson has really been good. He’s kind of replaced Aaron Gordon in that dunker spot and, you know, succeeded in that role. Uh you mentioned uh you know the injuries. Christian Brown is off is out as well. He’s the guy who uh kind of gets them going in transition a lot. We’ve seen a lot of time Jokic throws outlet passes to him. He was one of the top transition scorers in the NBA last season. So Denver is going to look a little bit different, but we just saw Denver look different and really perform well on the road against the Houston Rockets. Uh, and I think the Rockets, I mean, not think I know the Rockets are the best rebounding team in the NBA. And the Grizzlies have really dominated the glass as of late. This Denver team can really rebound the basketball well. You know, they’re going to have Yonas Valenunis backing up Joic. So, they’ve really kind of solidified the backup center spot, which is you which used to be where you can kind of attack uh this Denver team like, “Oh, Jokic out the game. Let’s blitz him.” It’s not that easy anymore with Valentunis coming in. So, yeah, this is going to be a tough matchup. Joe, I’m zeroing in on one thing. Fourth quarter execution. I think if you look at this game from the standpoint of the first through the third quarters, the Grizzlies should be right there. They’re going to be able to play defense. They’re going to be able to throw different bodies at Jokic. They’re going to be able to throw different bodies at Jamal Murray. But when it gets to that fourth quarter and the Nuggets got their offense, they’re going to go straight to that the one five pick and roll. They might they might go 51 pick and roll and have Jokic, you know, ball handling. But the ball is going to be in the hands of Jamal Murray and and Joic. But what are the Grizzlies going to do? It’s going to come down to that to me. I think fourth quarter execution is what I’m going to have my eye on. I think that the big thing in my opinion is the fact that without Aaron Gordon out there, you mentioned Braun as well, the Grizzlies will be able to double Joic and I think they have to be selective in how they do it, but they’re going to be able to blitz him, make him get the ball out of his hands. And I want to stress Joic is phenomenal with that, right? Like this guy has 10 assists. He’s averaging a triple double with 30 points, 13 rebounds, 10 assists. He is cooking again, shooting 63% from the field. But if I’m able to get the ball out of his hands, put some pressure, again, you have defensive wings like a Jaylen Wells, like a Cedric Coward, you have guys that theoretically Vince Williams Jr. are going to be able to defend Murray and make things difficult for him. You can really try to disrupt Jokic. And if you get beat by one of the best bigs to ever play the game of basketball, not named Joe Mullenax, in middle school, if you get beat by that guy, so be it, right? You tip your cap and you move along. But I think that they’re going to have the ability because of the injuries to the Nuggets, especially if Jiren is out there, right? I think that’s a major thing for the Grizzlies if Jackson Jr. is able to play questionable with that uh with that injury. Um it’s a big one. It’s at home for the Grizzlies. So, make sure you’re going out to FedEx Forum supporting the team. They’re on a winning streak. Why wouldn’t you go catch the game on a Monday night? I’m sure Demco Cole is going to be there covering for the commercial appeal. And you can bet your bottom dollar that Joe Mullenax will be with you. I don’t know why I’m talking about my third self in the third person so much on this episode. I will be with you on the podcast for Tuesday. It’ll be a late Monday night, early Tuesday kind of situation like we’ve been trying to do postgame this year. Trying to get that episode out a little bit earlier. Uh but I’ll be with you talking Grizzlies Nuggets, talking all that’s to come for the team. Maybe Jaw will have something to say for Jamal Murray. Again, the Klay Thompson thing was a little more that was back history several years ago. So, I think that was uh the story there. But we’ll be breaking down all things Grizzlies Nuggets on our next episode of the show. Deichel, so grateful to have you back with me, partner. Wonderful to see you. Um what are you looking most forward to from this test for Memphis against Denver? Uh what the the fourth quarter execution is the number one thing that stands out to me. I want to touch on an individual player. Sure. Uh Jiren Jackson Jr. Yeah. If he plays, right? Questionable. If he if he plays, if he plays, if he plays, that is that is the question mark here. But let’s get into this real quick. Uh one thing that stood out, Joe, what’s the main thing that stood out to you other than Zach Edi being back? But when you watch this team, watch this Grizzlies team the last two games, what stood out to you? The ball’s moving a lot better. Very, very quick movement with the ball. Yeah. Okay. I like that one. The other one I’ll say is the fact that they’re playing with a bunch of energy. Jar Jackson Jr., you’re about to come back into this group and yeah, you’re the star and they’re going to make sure that Jiren gets his touches. They’re going to make sure that Jiren gets the ball. The last game that I saw the Grizzlies lose against the Spurs, Jaylen Wells, Cedric Coward. I was talking to those guys. They said late in the fourth quarter, a lot of times we got caught just watching Jiren Jackson Jr. We can’t do that. Jiren’s got to come back into this thing and make the transition as seamless as pos. He’s got to come back, match the energy and the effort that these guys have been playing with. He’s got to come back and say, “Hey, look, the ball is not going to be stuck in my hands.” Now, you know, at the end of the day, I can put the ball in the cup as an isolation score. So, I’m going to do more of that than you guys have been doing. But, at the same time, there has to be a meshing that happens here. I want to make sure uh that’s something I’m going to keep an eye on as well in terms of how Jiren meshes back uh with the group. even though look he’s played with these guys forever but they’ve they’ve found kind of again identity in a way over these last two games and there is a thing that Jiren can bring that they’ve been missing. He has the potential to be that closer but at the same time make sure these guys don’t get caught ball watching and Jiren match the energy that these guys have been playing with over the last couple games. Absolutely. Absolutely. I think that’s a great takeaway. Make sure you’re following to Michael to Michael C for all his work that he does over the commercial appeal heading into the game against the Nuggets. And thank you for making Locked on Grizzlies your first listen every day. For your second listen, go find Locked on Fantasy Basketball. Josh Lloyd hosts the number one fantasy basketball podcast, giving you daily tips and helping you win your league, all while making you a smarter NBA fan. Find Lockdown Fantasy Basketball on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, the number one sports podcast network out there, your team every day. Make sure you’re liking, commenting, rating, reviewing, subscribing, wherever you get podcast, Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Google, YouTube. Make the Michael and myself part of your NBA and Memphis Grizzlies content consumption. Each and every time that an episode drops, I will be back with you post Grizzlies nuggets. Plenty to discuss. Until then, have a great rest of your day. Enjoy the weather. Enjoy being alive on a Monday. We’ll catch you next time here on Lockdown Grizzlies. See you.

The Memphis Grizzlies have won two games in a row! But all the chatter over the weekend was about a player that didn’t even play in the game. Hosts Damichael Cole and Joe Mullinax break down Ja Morant’s exchange with Klay Thompson during Memphis’ win against the Dallas Mavericks, plus look ahead to a showdown with Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets, on this episode of Locked on Grizzlies!

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