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There are but a couple pesky regular season games left for the Memphis Grizzlies to get through and nothing more to achieve. They’ve already done all that they can do. The Grizz wrapped up the second seed in the West with a 112-111 win over the San Antonio Spurs in game #77 of the term, playoff seeding all wrapped up with a week to spare. Can’t catch the 1-seed Phoenix Suns but are beyond reach of anybody else. Now it’s just a waiting game, waiting for those playoffs to begin.

A 2-seed means they won’t have to face the Suns until the Western Conference Finals should it come to that. It also means a first round series against the team that wins the 7/8 placed play-in game which will probably be either the Minnesota Timberwolves or the Los Angeles Clippers. At the time of writing there remains a slight chance that the Denver Nuggets could drop down into that play-in but only a slight chance.

The very next game after the Grizz clinched their seeding, Steven Adams was rested. He wasn’t the only one either. Ja Morant was still out with his knee thing. Jaren Jackson Jr sat that game too. As did Desmond Bane. Tyus Jones too. Officially it was left calf soreness for Steven Adams but clearly nothing to worry about given that long list of absentees. This was coach Jenkins giving a bunch of his trustiest soldiers a refreshing day off with the playoffs around the bend.

But funny things keep happening with this Grizzlies team. When Ja Morant got injured early in seasonal proceedings they instantly evolved into seriously competitive team and have not pumped the brakes since. Morant came back and delivered a bunch of MVP calibre performances and they continued to win. Dillon Brooks missed the bulk of the first two-thirds of things, the team’s best defender, and the story never changed. They clearly have some immense depth. Key fellas miss games and not only does the next man up deliver the goods but the team continues to play with the same style and identity as we’ve gotten used to. It really is an incredible thing.

Perhaps the most incredible example of that incredible thing was that game in which Morant, JJJ, Adams, Bane, and Jones all sat out... a game which they still somehow managed to win. Against the Phoenix Suns no less. Devin Booker scored 41 points. Chris Paul had 11 assist. But Memphis roughed them up thanks to 30 from Dillon Brooks along with six other dudes in double figures to win 122-114. Five of their eight best players in street clothes and they beat the team with the best record in the comp. That ain’t normal. Especially from the second youngest team in the NBA, with the second smallest salary hit. They must like the number two because despite those two facts they also have the second best record in the entire NBA this season.

This is Memphis’ first ever division title (inasmuch as divisions even matter any more) and they’re on the brink of beating the franchise’s record 56-win season in 2012-13. They have a guy in Morant who could be an MVP candidate for a decade. Jaren Jackson Jr could make the All-Defensive team this year. This team is built to build a legacy. Yet throughout everything there have been folks pouring cold water on what Memphis is doing using the age-old adage of: yeah but what have they done in the playoffs?

And here’s the thing: they’re right. The Grizzlies won a couple of play-in games last season, knocking out the San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors before going down 4-1 in the first round to the Utah Jazz. It was promising but it was only the beginning, nothing to celebrate. This season they’ve added Steven Adams and gone to a whole new level and yet the fact remains that legendary teams are defined by postseason achievements. Let’s throw it back to a stat from Kiwi Steve #7 a wee while back...

Career Playoff Games, Current Grizzlies Roster:

• Steven Adams – 59 games

• Kyle Anderson – 35 games

• Entire Rest Of The Team – 48 games

Steven Adams speaking about his playoff expertise: “I’m not sure. I have experience in the playoffs so I know about the preparation itself, it’s very very microscopic and it’s very fine-tuned. It takes a lot of discipline and you’ve gotta learn a lot of stuff quickly. So there’s that part of it, I’ve got experience there and I can give advice. But most of this stuff you actually have to just experience it. You have to go through it. So I’m not sure how much my advice, apart from being like: oh this is normal... you still have to go through the hard yards. It’s a completely different game though.”

A completely different game. You’re up against the same opponent four to seven games in a row with more time off between games to prepare. Weaknesses will be exposed, individual match-ups magnified, the pressure goes through the roof. And despite what a joyous campaign it has been the Grizzlies are largely untested in that arena. This season will be remembered differently if they cannot make a playoff run and the bulk of this squad have simply never experienced that before.

However that’s why this time of the year is so damned exciting because we’ve been watching this Grizzlies team overcome every obstacle for months on end without really being able to prove anything more than they already had. Now, finally, after almost 82 games, we’re about to emerge into the coliseum that is the NBA Playoffs. Where money and mouths meet. Where shit gets real. It is time. We are all ready.

Poetry In Motion

Overlord of the Off Boards

During the third quarter of a win over the Milwaukee Bucks, Steven Adams grabbed his third offensive rebounds of the game to surpass the great Zach Randolph (a man whom Adams has personal history with going back to his rookie campaign – all very one-sided and all water under the bridge now) for the most offensive rebounds in a season by a Memphis Grizzlies player.

Setting a franchise record his first go with the team? Not bad at all, son.

Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins: “Obviously Z-Bo set the standard and for Steven to come in here his first year and past him, don’t stop now. He just plays to his strengths and that’s what I love about him. He impacts winning, he just knows what he’s capable of doing every single night and this is big part of why he finds success on the floor.”

(Coach Jenkins uses that term about Adams so often: “he impacts winning”)

Just one of many team records broken this season. They’re on track for the best ever winning record. Won a maiden divisional title. Ja Morant bagged the team’s first 50-pointer. They had the NBA’s biggest ever winning margin in a victory over OKC. Desmond Bane’s three-point makes. We could go on for quite awhile here, to be honest. Heaps more where those came from.

Zach Randolph had 330 offensive boards in the 2009-10 season. He also had 326 off boards the season afterwards. And 310 two years after that. Steven Adams surpassed that 330-mark with several games to spare and if he doesn’t reach the 350 mark (he’s at 343 with three games left) it’ll only be because he gets rested. Which is likely, tbf. Nothing left to play for and we know these records don’t mean much to Steve-o. Still, he’s potentially got a couple more games to pad out the numeros.

Funny thing is this isn’t even close to his own personal best. Back the Oklahoma City days he had 384 ORebs in 2017-18 and then went even better with 391 in 2018-19. Both of those were Thunder franchise records even when you include all the Seattle Supersonics years as well. He broke it one year then broke it again the next. Third place is Marvin Webster with 361 for the Sonics way back in 1977-78. Hence this is the third time in his career that Steven Adams has broken a franchise record for offensive boards in a season.

Of course back then he was averaging around 33 minutes per game and this term he’s down in that 26-27 min range. The per game averages were still slightly better in those OKC days but the gap closes significantly. However in terms of overall efficiency, mate, nothing compares to what he’s doing with the Grizzlies. As discussed in the last Kiwi Steve write-up he’s on pace for one of the ten greatest OReb% seasons of all time. Not to mention that he’s probably going to average double digit total rebounds for the first time in his career.

Let alone his assists... he had eight of them in an OT loss to Utah the other day. Would have been on triple-double watch had he thrown down a couple more free throws. Anyway, if he does get to 350 offensive rebounds and also adds the couple more assists he needs to take him to 250 (his previous PB was 146 btw) then he’ll join Charles Barkley who is the only dude to have hit those tallies in the same season before. 350 ORebs & 250 assists. Barkley did it five times. Nobody else has ever achieved that. Bloody hell. How’s that for a stat?

The Vibes

It’s kinda funny to think of Steven Adams as the oldest dude on an NBA roster. Says something about the youth of this Grizzlies team given that Steve-o himself is only 28 years old (exactly two months older than Kyle Anderson). But this is his ninth season in the big league and there isn’t a fully contracted Grizz teammate can match that. Anderson is in year eight. Tyus Jones in year seven. None of the rest of them have more than three previous seasons of experience in the Association.

Ja Morant is 22 years old. Jaren Jackson is 22 years old. Desmond Bane is 23 years old. De’Anthony Melton is 23 years old. Dillon Brooks by comparison is middle-aged at 26. Chuck in 25yo backup big Brandon Clarke too. All of those guys are important players for this team and none have played for another franchise. Adams meanwhile has played for three different teams in the last three years.

It’s all relative... but he’s the gruff veteran of this crew. Hence why it takes a rare occasion – such as ESPN giving a full day of spectacle to the city of Memphis and its basketball team – for Steve-o to get amongst the usual post-game festivities...

Blokes like Morant and JJJ and Bane are always posing for hype shots after big wins. Steven Adams is almost never witnessed. Maybe he’s behind the camera? Maybe he’s somewhere else talking to the coach about Xs & Os? Maybe he’s icing his ancient weary bones?

Regardless, same as with cat-skinning there are many ways to express excitement on a basketball court and while Adams rarely celebrates his own achievements he is often one of the first to fire up on the bench when a buddy does something slick.

Chats With The Main Man

Imposter Syndrome

RIP Kenny Mac

SLAM DUNKS

^ (That’s from the Grizzlies’ annual season-ticket holder event if you’re wondering)

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