3 Things We Learned From Warriors-Grizzlies Game 2 On Tuesday

The Memphis Grizzlies defeated the Golden State Warriors 106-101 in Game 2 of their Western Conference Semifinals series on Tuesday to even up this series at 1-1 heading to San Francisco.

On Sunday, the Golden State Warriors defeated the Memphis Grizzlies by one point to take an early 1-0 series lead. On Tuesday, the Grizzlies bounced-back and won Game 2 on basically one position, as they defeated the Warriors 106-101 in a game that might as well have been decided by one point!

This series has been so incredibly close thus far and heading into Games 3 and 4 in San Francisco, we should expect nothing less than fireworks.

Intensity is a great word to describe Game 2 in a nutshell, as both teams played extremely physically, resulting in a handful of injuries.

For Golden State, not only did Draymond Green suffer a right eye laceration that had to be treated with stitches, but Gary Payton II suffered a fractured left elbow on a hard foul by Grizzlies’ wing Dillon Brooks, a foul that resulted in Brooks getting tossed from the game early on in the first quarter.

On the other side of things for Memphis, Desmond Bane continued to deal with some back pain and All-Star Ja Morant was poked in the eye, forcing him to deal with vision loss the entire fourth quarter.

Speaking of Morant, he was fantastic yet again for the Grizzlies, scoring 47 points, grabbing 8 rebounds and dishing out 8 assists in his team’s Game 2 victory.

So much happened on Tuesday night between these two teams and here is what we learned from the Grizzlies winning Game 2 over the Warriors.

Ja Morant Won The Game, Not The Grizzlies

On Tuesday night, Ja Morant scored 47 points on 15-31 shooting, he scored 18 total points in the fourth quarter and he was responsible for the Grizzlies’ final 15 points of the game.

Ja Morant single-handedly won Game 2 for Memphis and over the final 3:11 of the game, Morant shot 3-5 from the floor and had a total of 11 points.

A true “Ja-dropping” performance, the Grizzlies’ All-Star became just the third player in NBA history to record two 45-point games before turning 23-years-old, joining LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, per ESPN Stats & Info. 

Those are two pretty good players to be associated with and for Morant, this was just another night for him in the NBA.

Not to take away from his performance, but the Grizzlies as a whole really did not play that well against the Warriors. Defensively, they were locked in and played with a lot of intensity, but they really struggled to get anything going on offense.

Outside of Ja Morant, the rest of the Grizzlies shot just 35% from the floor and combined to score 59 points. Over 44% of the team’s total scoring output in this game came from Morant on Tuesday night, which is why they were able to come away with a win.

This is not going to happen every single night, which is why the Grizzlies will need to search for answers as to who will step up around their superstar point guard in this series, especially if Desmond Bane is not 100% with a back injury.

Warriors Need To Force The Ball Out Of Morant’s Hands

Losing Gary Payton II is not only a huge loss morally for the Warriors, but defensively as well.

Throughout the year, Payton has emerged as one of the best defensive players for the Warriors and without him now, Golden State is going to be searching for answers on how to get the ball out of Ja Morant’s hands.

He has proven that he is more than capable of scoring every single possession and after scoring 47 points in Game 2, Steve Kerr and his staff are going to do everything in their power to make sure Morant is uncomfortable the rest of this series.

Andre Iguodala has missed some time due to a neck injury, but can he come back and be the answer to stop Morant?

With Gary Payton II out, the Warriors need a defensive stopper and there is no better time for rookie Jonathan Kuminga to emerge than right now in the playoffs. 

We have seen flashes of his full potential this season and given both his length and athleticism, Kuminga is the perfect formula to potentially stopping Ja Morant in this series.

The NBA playoffs always see new faces and names emerging, so could this be Kuminga’s time to start his rise to stardom?

Golden State Simply Missed Shots

When you go back and watch Game 2 of this series as a whole, it is very clear to see that the Golden State Warriors controlled just about every aspect of this game.

Ja Morant was fantastic and willed his team to victory, but the rest of Memphis really did not show up in this game.

Time-and-time again, the Warriors had opportunities to close out this game down the stretch, but they shot just 2-7 from the floor over the final 3:11 of this game and a couple of turnovers and fouls really put this game away for Memphis.

The Warriors outrebounded the Grizzlies 52-47 despite their lack of size on the interior and they also outscored the Grizzlies 60-42 in the paint.

On paper, everything points towards the Warriors winning this game if you were not shown the score, but Ja Morant’s 47 points were just enough to hand Golden State a loss.

The Grizzlies needed every single one of Morant’s 47 points to win this game and while losing is never a good feeling, Golden State has to be very confident with what they have done through the first two games in this series.

Coming back to win Game 1 and then losing Game 2 because of a historic performance has the Warriors in a really good spot in this series and now, with the next two games on their home court, it should be interesting to see if Golden State can consolidate their “break” of home court advantage and take a 3-1 series lead. 

Related stories on NBA basketball

• Disappointing Injury Update About Warriors' Gary Payton II: According to ESPN's Kendra Andrews, Gary Payton II sustained a fractured left elbow in Game 2 against the Memphis Grizzlies and will undergo an MRI on Wednesday. CLICK HERE.
• JJ Redick On Grizzlies’ Dillon Brooks: “He Broke The Code”: Golden State Warriors’ guard Gary Payton II suffered a fractured left elbow after a hard foul by Memphis Grizzlies’ wing Dillon Brooks in Tuesday night’s game. Here is what ESPN’s JJ Redick said about the situation. CLICK HERE.