2024-25 Western Conference Play-In Preview: No. 8 Memphis Grizzlies vs. No. 7 Golden State Warriors

2024-25 Western Conference Play-In Preview: No. 8 Memphis Grizzlies vs. No. 7 Golden State Warriors

Today is the day! The NBA playoffs are right around the corner! But before we get there, the Golden State Warriors and Memphis Grizzlies will play the second of two play-in games Tuesday evening inside Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif. The winner of Tuesday’s game will clinch the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference while the loser has to fend off either Dallas or Sacramento later this week.

Without further ado, let’s dive into our West play-in preview!

What to know about the Memphis Grizzlies:

Starters:

• Ja Morant
• Desmond Bane
• Vince Williams Jr.
• Jaren Jackson Jr.
• Zach Edey

Key Reserves:

• Santi Aldama
• Luke Kennard
• Scottie Pippen Jr.

After lofty expectations heading in, it was difficult to have a rougher 2023-24 season than the Memphis Grizzlies, winning just 27 games in what was one of the worst seasons in franchise history mired by injury.

The Grizzlies rebounded emphatically, but they still fired head coach Taylor Jenkins with less than two weeks remaining in the season. First-year assistant Tuomas Iisalo took over, leaning more into star guard Ja Morant, who’s been at the center of controversy due to his in-game celebrations over the last couple of weeks. Memphis has leaned into more ball-screens for Morant, which has led to his most productive stretch of the season.

Over his last seven games, he’s averaging 28.4 points and 6.3 assists on 48.1 percent shooting and 37.9 percent from deep on 8.3 attempts per game. His 3-point shooting has been a huge struggle, so him knocking them down–albeit in this smaller sample–at a relative rate is nothing short of encouraging.

The Grizzlies capped the 2024-25 season with the league’s sixth-best offense and 11th-best defense. Over the last calendar month, those marks have drifted toward the middle-of-the-pack, which can’t happen if they want to upset the Warriors on the road Tuesday.

What to know about the Golden State Warriors:

Starters:

• Stephen Curry
• Brandin Podziemski
• Moses Moody
• Jimmy Butler
• Draymond Green

Key Reserves:

• Gary Payton II
• Buddy Hield
• Kevon Looney
• Quinten Post

The Warriors started out on a terror before hitting a massive midseason rut with Stephen Curry shouldering a herculean burden on his shoulders. Without any sort of consistency or answers on the roster, Golden State set out for a star and eventually acquired disgruntled Heat star Jimmy Butler in a five-team blockbuster ahead of February’s trade deadline.

The deal has not only sparked Golden State, but has completely rejuvenated Curry, who’s played like a top-5 player since the All-Star break. Over his last 24 games, he’s averaged 26.7 points, 4.2 rebounds and 5.9 assists on 47.6/41.0/94.5 shooting splits. Curry has totaled nine 30-point performances since, including a 52-point performance against Memphis on April 1 to secure the season series and, thus, the tiebreaker.

Green has also looked close to his Defensive Player of the Year self and is overly confident in the Warriors’ chance at competing for a title. They are 22-5 when Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green and Stephen Curry all play with a plus-6.3 NET when the three share the court together, including a ridiculous 19.2 NET if you add Moody and Podziemski to the fold.

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Key Questions:

1. Playoff Jimmy. Are you there?

April has typically been when the season starts for Butler, who’s currently dealing with a deep thigh contusion that he suffered late in Sunday’s game against the Clippers. For five-and-a-half years, Butler turned into a folk hero with the Miami Heat, willing them three Eastern Conference Finals appearances and two NBA Finals appearances despite the odds being stacked against them multiple times.

Butler, 35, isn’t quite the same player he was, say, during the Heat’s 2022-23 Finals run. But he’s still shown that he’s capable of taking over particular pockets of games on both ends at a hyper-efficient level. We know what Curry is capable of, but the Warriors are going to need ancillary production elsewhere, and the first person we are going to look at is Jimmy Buckets, a playoff riser.

2. Can Memphis’ dinosaur make his imprint?

We mentioned above how Iisalo has leaned into optimizing Morant with more ball-screens. A huge part–figuratively and literally–of that has been 7-foot-4 rookie Zach Edey. Memphis has leaned more into his vertical spacing and bone-crushing screen-setting, opening up a threat in the Grizzlies’ offense.

The Warriors are small, which is why Edey’s presence in this game is so important. In the April 1 meeting, he had 10 points, 16 rebounds and four blocks; over his next five games, he averaged 9.2 points and 15.6 rebounds. Establishing himself and being a true rim-running lob threat against where he will have smaller players trying to wall him off heading downhill will be very important. Be big. Be the mountain you are. Be the big Memphis drafted you to be.

If he can do that while staying out of foul trouble defensively, I like the Grizzlies’ chances so much more.

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