Grizzlies’ Desmond Bain shares winning recipe after ‘surprise’ against Spurs

Any homegrown core developed through the NBA draft needs time to marinate before being mentioned in NBA Finals conversations. Many organizations find that things get worse when just one ingredient is missing. That was not the case for I Morant’s grumbled Grizzlies. Even without Morant in the second game against the San Antonio Spurs (19-21) in three nights, Desmond Bane cooked up a Michelin star experience in a 140-112 victory. Sharing the basketball, trusting his teammates and another All-Star turnaround from Santi Aldama was enough to cut down Victor Vembanyama once again.

The Grizzlies (27-15) failed to make it count Ja Morant submitted the dunk of the year on the scoreboard in the first game of this miniseries, unfortunately. However, that was just an appetizer. Bane knocked some out surprise dunks to please the family in attendance for the end of his stay in San Antonio.

“Twice,” Bane screamed, well, twice. “Twice!” One of my cousins ​​asked ‘Is Des going to dunk? I said ‘Damn it,’ but I gave them a little surprise tonight.”

It was no surprise that Desmond Bane and a boastful Jaren Jackson Jr. helped the Grizzlies get the best of Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama twice in three nights. Memphis may have been without Ja Morant, but the All-Star has already missed 18 games this season. Taylor Jenkins still had the Grizzlies playing with a seasoned goal of trash-talking and plenty of joy.

“It’s always a great feeling to end a long road with a win against a good young, hungry team,” Bane said. “I thought we were good, especially in the second half when we executed, shared the ball, (and) played with tempo.” It’s a fun brand of basketball.”

Forget recently The Grizzlies’ setbacks against the Houston Rockets. Another revenge game is on the January schedule. Bain knows this type of performance should be expected against other Western Conference foes.

“(Another) 140 points tonight! That’s been the recipe this year, just sharing (the basketball),” Bane noted. “We have more guys that can do more things. We played well tonight.”

Santi Aldama filled the All-Star void extremely well with 29 points, eight rebounds, one assist, one steal and zero fouls in 30 minutes. Bane couldn’t help but boast about how the Spanish super-sub is now serving up wonderful stats almost every night.

“(Aldama) is only in what, his third, fourth year? So obviously there’s a lot of room for him to grow still, but where he started, that’s crazy man,” Bain said. “He is a worker. He spends his summers in the national team playing against grown men. I think it was great for him. He’s confident right now, he’s doing it at both ends. The guard (Victor Vembanyama) tonight. Hell of a performance.”

The Grizzlies need help catching the Oklahoma City Thunder (34-7) for home-court advantage in the Western Conference. Next on the menu is a home game against Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves (22-19). Three lottery teams follow the Timberwolves to the FedEx Forum. Memphis should enjoy this easy schedule to close out the month and keep pace with the Rockets (27-13) for second place.

Fortunately, the Grizzlies have tapped into a superior recipe that works even if one of the Big Three is missing (Ja Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr., Desmond Bane).