After taking care of reigning MVP Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets in back-to-back games, the Memphis Grizzlies are now looking for their 2nd straight road win. They’ve won 3 of 4 games and things are looking bright for the Ja Morant led team. Speaking of Ja, he has been playing at an MVP level this season averaging 27 points per game while shooting 52.2% from the field and dishing 7.5 assists per game as well. Jaren Jackson Jr. has also played well for them, but one thing that’s been a deficiency of this team is defense. They allow 113.1 points per game, but as we saw against the Nuggets when that end of the ball is sorted, they are pretty much unstoppable.
Although they have the same 5-3 record as the Grizzlies, Washington has been on the downfall a bit lately losing two straight against East rivals Atlanta and Toronto. Star player Bradley Beal is slowly getting back into the flow, he is averaging 24.4 points per game, but his shooting has been off at just 38% from the field. November has not been kind to Washington lately, they have covered the spread only once in last 6 games played. One encouraging stat through the first 8 games of the season though has been their rebounding, they currently rank 6th in the NBA averaging 47.8 boards per game.
Poor shooting has plagued the Wizards in their last two losses, but they should turn things around at home where they are 3-1 this season. Memphis has picked up the pace in their last couple of games, if they do so tonight again it should benefit the Wizards who like to play faster. Morant and co. haven’t been that convincing on the road, so I’m going to side with the Wizards in this one.
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Washington home games generally produce more points than usual. The total has gone over in 6 of their last 7 home games and same goes for the Grizzlies with 6 of their last 8 games on the road finishing over the total. The two offenses are both averaging similar numbers this season offensively, I’d argue the Wizards have the edge as they are still missing a 15-point scorer in Rui Hachimura and Bradley Beal has struggled shooting the ball. Washington has also allowed at least 107 points in their last 5 games and currently rank only 15th in defensive efficiency in the entire NBA. Memphis is also not good when it comes to defensive efficiency, they are 29th allowing 110.7 points per 100 possessions. Taking all that into account I think it’s fairly safe to say we are in for a high scoring game here.
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