MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Memphis Grizzlies, with or without embattled star Ja Morant and injured center Steven Adams, are gritty, pesky, frisky and quite simply a pain to deal with.
In the Nuggets’ first road contest as defending champions, in a building where they hadn’t won in two-plus years, they needed to overcome those aggravating qualities as well as their own sloppiness to earn a 108-104 win Friday night.
The Grizzlies, last season’s No. 2 seed in the West, kept the game consistently hectic and kept Nikola Jokic in check, with two former Defensive Players of the Year (Jaren Jackson Jr. and Marcus Smart) nagging him constantly.
“They’re a really good home court team. They’re a really tough team,” Jokic told The Post. “Back in the day, since I came here eight, nine years ago, they were always a tough team to beat here.”
With 6:05 remaining, an unsuspecting Jokic was stripped by Derrick Rose for his eighth turnover. (He ended up with nine, the most in a single game since he had 10 last Nov. 3 in Oklahoma City.) Rose’s ensuing fast-break layup cut Denver’s lead to 95-93 and forced a Michael Malone timeout. Smart’s 15-footer less than two minutes later gave the Grizzlies a 98-97 lead, their first since 4-2.
“When it’s nine, it’s not just one thing. I was really bad,” Jokic said. “… I don’t know. The ball slipping. Marcus Smart took a couple balls from me. I threw some bad passes. … Dribbling in a lot of people. It’s us, it’s me and it’s them, for sure.”
“He’s gotta be better,” Malone said. “We play through him so much obviously, and we know that his usage rate is high. And he will turn the ball over. But his goal is always to have a 3-to-1 ratio. So if he’s having nine assists, maybe three turnovers. It can’t be seven assists to nine turnovers.”
Yet even on Jokic’s ugliest nights, he often is a difference-maker in winning ways. He and Jamal Murray knocked down consecutive 3-pointers for a 103-98 lead with three minutes remaining that the Nuggets (2-0) never gave up. Jokic made the decisive foul shot with 10 seconds left to put Denver up two baskets, ending the night with 21 points and 12 rebounds. Murray scored 16 of his 22 points before halftime, but a crafty dish to Aaron Gordon through traffic in the lane provided Gordon with an easy dunk and a 107-104 lead in the last minute.
“To be honest, we lost a couple years ago in this kind of game,” Jokic said. “And probably (with) maturity and experience, we know what to expect now.”
He also made one of the most casually impressive plays of his career by chucking an inbound alley-oop pass 25 yards to Gordon, from next to the Nuggets’ bench at the other end of the court. It was one of the few moments Memphis was caught sleeping, and a pass worthy of Patrick Mahomes.
Jackson was efficient for Memphis regardless of who was on the floor, amassing 21 points on 9-of-12 shooting and nine rebounds. But Zeke Nnaji, in a game with a loose ball seemingly every other possession, was ready for the challenge. He battled and made a handful of high-effort plays throughout the night. In one sequence after a Denver timeout, Malone kept his second unit on the floor up 91-87 early in the fourth. Nnaji tipped a difficult offensive rebound to Christian Braun in the corner, quickly positioned him on the low post and scored on the feed from Braun.
After keeping at least one of Jokic and Murray on the floor at all times during Tuesday’s opener, it was fitting that Malone strayed from that philosophy in the second game, considering the skewed first-half production of Denver’s bench relative to the starters. For a portion of the second quarter, the Nuggets used a lineup of Jackson, Braun, Julian Strawther (making his NBA debut), Peyton Watson and Nnaji.
At halftime, that bench had supplied 26 points on 11-of-20 shooting. Murray had 16, but the other four starters were 7-for-18 from the field with 19 combined points. Jackson finished the night with 16, all in the first three quarters.
“I thought the bench was great,” Malone said. “They produced. It’s one thing to play hard. And that group I think is always gonna play hard.”