Grizzlies/Celtics Takeaways
10 thoughts coming out of Memphis' trip to Boston
Forgive me for this style of post this fine Monday - the Super Bowl was last night. You, dear reader, deserve good #content from “Written in the Dark”. That continues here…just in a different structure today.
Some of you will be disappointed that I will be a bit less long-winded than usual. Others will rejoice. All will find something to be mad at me about.
Let’s dive in.
Ja Morant remains special. Hard-hitting analysis, I know. But we can’t allow for what Ja does to become ordinary. It is most certainly not ordinary. He is a physical specimen, but beyond that in every game he seems to display some other layer or aspect of his game that we didn’t even know he had. In this game, it came alongside a player that until Grizzlies/Celtics he didn’t actually have either.
We have a shooter. The set-up for this play was a blast.
The screen was cool too (more on that in a moment) but Ja Morant showing the capacity to read a double-team/over-shifting defense, skip pass cross court, and find a dude shooting 52% on corner threes is something that we KNEW he could do, but now should be able to see more often. Kennard brings that level of attention.
Kennard helped spark Morant’s dominant 3rd quarter. Watch this possession, part of Ja’s explosive scoring output coming out of halftime.
In the past, when Ja has attacked off the pick and roll in this way, that defender on Luke Kennard (Payton Pritchard in this case, but it could be anyone) would have collapsed inside alongside every other defender already there. Because of Kennard, that doesn’t happen here. He must be respected as a floor spacer and legitimate threat to score consistently from three.
This space will make life easier for Ja. He can Kennard should log plenty of minutes together.
Kennard also defends. He will never be mistaken for Dillon Brooks…or even for an above average defender. But he took a charge to force a turnover in this game, and the idea of his effort helping make his defensive shortfalls more endearing is true through one game. He can’t be alongside, say, Santi Aldama for extended stretches (at least not without Dillon Brooks AND Jaren Jackson Jr. involved as well) who also is having defensive issues. But perhaps he won’t be a liability in that slot - we do need a larger sample size, of course.
An emphasis on screens. It was a noticeable shift - not that Grizzlies Head Coach has never had his players set screens, but the sheer number and amount of different players setting them popped off the screen to this viewer. Never a strength of Brandon Clarke (until the screen set above for the Kennard 3) or Jaren Jackson Jr., it appeared to be a point of emphasis - but not just them. Small screens with perimeter players were also implemented more than seemingly normal. An interesting wrinkle…will it stick?
Same goes for switching. Memphis has switched defensively throughout the season. But again, much like the screening, it seemed to be more of a focus in this game. Boston presents unique challenges, especially as shooter - that probably is part of the thought process of Jenkins. With Steven Adams currently out as well, all the Memphis front court players are capable of switching in this way to varying degrees. Would this have been a gameplan priority with a healthy Steven Adams?
Rebounding was an issue. Speaking of Steven Adams…boy does Memphis miss him. The Celtics were +20 in rebounding against the Grizzlies, which is pretty seismic - especially when Boston outrebounded Memphis 14-3 on the offensive glass. That’s 11 additional possessions created - possessions that the Grizzlies sorely need in half-court offense in particular. There has to be more from the likes of Xavier Tillman Sr. (2 rebounds), who is in the lineup because he theoretically does similar things to Adams. That was not the case in this one.
The Dillon Brooks Experience lives on. Jayson Tatum struggled mightily offensively in this game - 3-16 overall from the field, 1-8 from three. That is due in large part to the efforts of Dillon Brooks - a flawed player who brings an intensity and focus to his individual defense that makes so much of a difference. He made some early threes as well - that probably led to more poor shots later in the game than Grizzlies fans would like to see. But Tatum wasn’t the reason Memphis lost this game. Dillon Brooks is the main reason that is a true statement.
The other Celtics, however… Sam Hauser - 6-11 from three. Al Horford - 4-7. Payton Pritchard - 4-7. Derrick White - 4-9. Mike Muscala - 2-5. Those 5 players more than made up for the issues that Jayson Tatum had, or the absences of Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart, and Malcolm Brogdon. 20 made threes across them. At some point, it isn’t the fault of the players when almost every time out Memphis opponents light things up from three. Scheme needs to be tweaked - or at the least have cleaner adjustments. Maybe the switching attempts were a crack at that. More practice is needed.
Jaren Jackson Jr. is the key. Ja Morant is a special player, but he’s not impactful on BOTH ends of the court consistently. Jaren Jackson Jr. has that capacity, and when he gets in foul trouble - as he did in this game - Memphis suffers. The Grizzlies defense depends on him to make opposing offenses more predictable and less efficient. His ability to take advantage of mismatches makes him an offensive weapon. He can’t be those two things on the bench. Foul trouble - with at least two of them being on poor decisions and one coming from a rare double team on the perimeter that Jaren rarely sees - hurts the entire rotation. More care must be paid.