The Memphis Grizzlies put up 57 points in the first half of Wednesday's game, slicing and dicing the Portland Trail Blazers' half-court defense en route to a stellar 116.3 offensive rating. More discouraging for Portland going into intermission? Ja Morant was underwhelming compared to the sky-high standard he set over the season's first three games, scoring six points on as many shots while struggling to navigate his way to the rim.
Surely none of that would continue after intermission. Morant came into the game leading the league in scoring at 35.0 points per game on 57.9 percent shooting. He'd shown real progress with his jumper, but an even bigger story was the extent to which Morant, still listed at 174 pounds and looking no heavier, was dominating the paint like Shaquille O'Neal and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Ja Morant has scored 62 points in the paint this season.
Over the last 25 years, only 2 other players have scored 60+ paint points in their first 3 games of a season:
Shaquille O'Neal
Giannis Antetokounmpo— Matt Williams (@StatsWilliams) October 27, 2021
That historic rate of interior dominance was always unsustainable for a guard, even one with Morant's peerless blend of athleticism, ball-handling skill and overall creativity. But for that inevitable regression to the mean to occur against the Blazers was still surprising, especially considering just how lost they looked defensively dealing with the LA Clippers' pace and penetration on Monday.
Morant, amazingly, didn't take a single shot from the restricted area in the first half. Despite making a more concerted, aggressive effort to get downhill off the dribble thereafter, he was just 1-of-3 at the rim by the time his night was over. Morant entered Wednesday's action averaging eight makes and 11 attempts from there, tormenting the Cleveland Cavaliers (starting three bigs), Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers.
Clearly, the Blazers' first-half defense on Morant was no fluke. They limited him far more than any of Memphis' previous opponents, executing Chauncey Billups' pre-game strategy to a tee on their way to an impressive 116-96 victory.
“He's the general. When he plays well, they play well, right?” Billups said of Morant. “We did a really good job of just locking into the gameplan.”
The crux of that gameplan? Shrinking the court to make Morant see as many bodies as possible, forcing him to give up the ball. It wasn't without its foibles, especially early. The Grizzlies got up 31 threes in the first half, many of them generated by the rapt attention Morant commanded from all five Portland defenders. He doled out 10 assists, and could've easily had half that many more if his teammates made more quality looks.
Still, the stats—Morant made just a pair of two-pointers and committed nine turnovers—supported the eye test. His inability to get to the basket was due to the Blazers consistently overloading the strong side of the floor, sometimes with four defenders.
When Morant put his head down for hard-charging straight-line drives or skated his way through a maze of defenders, Portland's bigs were always in position to challenge him. Jusuf Nurkic and Cody Zeller deserve most plaudits for their team's relentless, physical interior defense, but everyone had a hand in keeping Morant from conjuring his aerial magic at the rim.
Everywhere he went, Morant was met with spread arms, quick hands and active feet—often from ahead and behind him, from his left to his right. The Blazers went into the second half with the goal of making Morant's life even harder.
“We just amped up the pressure,” Larry Nance Jr. told reporters after the game. “It's easy to make a pass when you're by yourself. I could pass it to any of you guys when I'm by myself. But when you've got someone's hands in your face and reaching for the ball or stuff like that, all of a sudden Steven Adams has to keep the ball here instead of out in front, and Ja has the ball down low and we got two sets of hands reaching for it, that's a harder play. We were just super active in the passing lanes and playing our coverages really well, I thought.”
Content to let the Grizzlies bomb away from deep if it meant keeping Morant from creasing the paint with a head of steam, Portland even busted out a hybrid 2-3 zone for a couple different stints.
Playing more zone defense, which Billups unveiled for the first time on Wednesday, won't answer the questions still facing his team on that side of the ball. It's a gambit he'll deploy for a few possessions against specific opponents, and the Grizzlies' collective lack of outside shooting—especially with Jaren Jackson Jr., in foul trouble, missing almost the entire third quarter—made them the perfect guinea pig. De'Anthony Melton clanking all five of his triples helped, too.
Portland's defensive gameplan for Morant and the Grizzlies won't work against most opponents. The sweet-shooting Clippers, for instance, would run the home team out of Moda Center on Friday night if the Blazers give up as many clean looks from deep as they did versus Memphis.
But Billups talked earlier this week about the difference between merely wanting to win and actually doing the hard work necessary to achieve success. Portland put in that work against Memphis, playing with the competitive edge, sound execution and relentless activity needed to cool off basketball's hottest player—and lend some welcome credence to hopes of a much-improved defense in 2021-22.
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