Portland Is 3-0, and the West's Injury Wave Is Opening the Door Wider
Ja Morant faces Memphis for the first time as a Trail Blazer while Anthony Edwards, Jaren Jackson Jr. and other Western stars sit out, changing the early-season math.
- Portland has started the season 3-0, with host Mike Richman crediting a coaching upgrade and improved roster talent for the offensive surge. m:…3506
- Ja Morant faces the Grizzlies for the first time since leaving Memphis, shooting 72 percent from midrange for Portland while the team defense is 12 points worse per 100 possessions with him on the floor. m:…4964
- Anthony Edwards is expected to be out for up to two months after arthroscopic knee surgery, and Jaren Jackson Jr. is out six to eight weeks with an MCL tear. m:…3506
- Minnesota lost its first game without Edwards to Golden State, with the Warriors scoring 22 points off 15 Timberwolves turnovers. m:…3070
- Oklahoma City's loss to Dallas showed a team with a much smaller margin for error while injured, though its hosts still see a home-court team once healthy. m:…9412
The fast start
The Portland Trail Blazers are 3-0, and the early numbers back up the record. Host Mike Richman attributes the offensive surge to a coaching upgrade and improved roster talent, noting the team is generating a higher volume of wide-open three-point attempts than last season, with Toumani Camara shooting 59 percent from three-point range. Grizzlies podcast host Joe Mullinax, previewing the matchup from the other side, calls Portland the most efficient team in the league on early-season data. m:…3506 m:…4964
Three games is a small sample, and the schedule has not yet tested whether that efficiency holds. But the start matters more than usual this season because the Western Conference around Portland is already thinning out, and the teams Portland is chasing are losing stars for weeks at a time. m:…3506
Morant meets Memphis
The next test is also the most personal one on the early schedule: Ja Morant's first game against the Memphis Grizzlies since his departure. Mullinax notes Morant is shooting 72 percent from midrange for Portland and that his 8.6 percent turnover rate would be the lowest of his career if it holds, while also noting Portland's defense is 12 points worse per 100 possessions when Morant is on the floor. Mullinax adds that Morant takes responsibility for his role in the end of his time in Memphis, and that there is no definitive winner or loser of the trade between the two teams at this stage. m:…4964
Richman, previewing the same game from Portland's side, says Morant's return to Memphis is a significant storyline but that Morant does not have personal beef with his former teammates. The tactical keys, both hosts agree, run through Memphis rookie Zach Eadie, whom Mullinax calls the X-factor for the Grizzlies and Richman calls the critical swing player in the matchup. Memphis is also the bigger team in the frontcourt, according to Mullinax, and relies on depth and a rotation in which no player plays more than 32 minutes. m:…3506 m:…4964
The injury wave
The reason Portland's start carries extra weight is the injury list across the West. Anthony Edwards is expected to be out for up to two months following arthroscopic knee surgery, and Jaren Jackson Jr. will miss six to eight weeks with an MCL tear, according to Richman, who also observes that star players appear to be getting injured more frequently than in the past. Minnesota's first game without Edwards showed what that absence costs: host Ben Beacon describes a rudderless offense, with LaMelo Ball struggling to split double teams near the timeline and committing six turnovers, while Golden State scored 22 points off the Timberwolves' 15 turnovers in the loss. m:…3506 m:…3070
Oklahoma City is navigating the same squeeze. Hosts Rylan Stiles and Derek Parker describe the Thunder's loss to Dallas as a glimpse of a new reality in which the team has a limited margin for error, with the offense heavily dependent on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's individual performance and a rebounding deficit of 49 to 43 in that game. They still expect a home-court team in the Western Conference playoff picture once healthy, and point to A.J. Mitchell's 29-point performance against Dallas as a sign of emerging depth. m:…9412
What it means for Portland
Put together, the picture is a conference in which the early standings are being set as much by availability as by talent. Portland's offense is producing at a high level, its star guard is efficient with the ball, and the teams it would normally chase are missing their best players for weeks. The counterweight is on the other side of the ball: Portland's defense slips sharply with Morant on the floor, and Memphis brings the size and depth to test exactly that weakness. m:…4964 m:…3506
The Morant game will answer the first question about whether this start is real: can Portland's offense hold up against a Memphis team built on depth and frontcourt size, and can its defense survive the minutes its star guard plays? The longer question is whether the injury openings stay open long enough for a 3-0 start to become a cushion rather than a footnote. m:…3506 m:…4964
What is still unresolved
- Whether Morant's defensive numbers improve as he settles into Portland's system, or remain the drag Mullinax flagged.
- How long Edwards and Jackson actually stay out relative to the timelines Richman cited, and whether Minnesota and Memphis hold their places without them.
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