The penny dropped about three minutes into game two. Steven Adams had been fighting in vain for an offensive rebound and as he turned to run back down the court his hand whipped Jarred Vanderbilt in the face.

We’ve all been tapping our feet impatiently for months now just waiting for a chance to see what this Grizzlies team can do in the playoffs. Now we’re finally about to find out.

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.

Steven Adams may well be having a career year. It won’t necessarily look like that from the state of his stats considering he’s scoring at the lowest rate since his rookie season, but he’s doing almost literally everything else he could possibly be asked to do.

It’s a special thing to be able to watch Ja Morant be Ja Morant on a basketball court. He’s having a genuinely astounding season, surging into the upper echelon of NBA star talent with his dynamic scoring excellence

The All Star Break is also a convenient chance to put the ol’ feet up for a couple of days, a rarity within any typically frantic NBA schedule. Between travel and games, teams barely even have a chance for proper training sessions let alone rest days

Trade deadline was predictably bonkers as it came and went on Friday morning NZT. Sean Marks was front and centre as he often seems to be, but the other kiwi in the league spent the morning blissfully preparing for a game. The Memphis Grizzlies didn’t do anything

It has been called the moment that Memphis truly fell in love with Steven Adams. Fourth quarter of the Grizzlies’ win over the Chicago Bulls and as Ja Morant tried to attack past Tony Bradley, the Bulls big fella deliberately fouled him…

So what’s the point of offensive rebounds? Free possessions is what. Every one of those boards is an extra possession with the potential for an extra shot. Even the ones he chucks straight back up there for misses that he subsequently rebounds again himself.

Steven Adams has been rebounding excessively, dishing out his cheeky assists, and defending the lights out with a consistency that we hadn’t really seen from him in a Grizzlies jersey before. That’s all come at a time when the Grizzlies as a team have had this sudden explosion of form. Not a coincidence.

The benchmark has shifted for Steven Adams. We were treated to some exaggerated excellence in the first week of the season as Adams averaged 11 points, 10.6 rebounds, and 3.2 assists across the first five games. Since then... he’s only scored in the double figures once

The first three games that Steven Adams played for Memphis were damn near perfect. He was putting him big numbers and looking agile and energised. The stuff since then... it’s been a bit more inconsistent.

For all the constant chatter in NBA circles when it comes to evaluating players – judging prospects, comparing stats, debating trade balances, etc. - the most overlooked factor is often fit. As in, does this player suit the team that he plays for and do they suit him in return.

It’s only preseason. There’s usually not much to learn from preseason games, guys are just trying to get their reps up before the ones that matter. Anyone who applies relevance to preseason results in any way is a lost soul and there are lots more of these exhibition games to get through