Ja “Trending to Be In” as Grizz Look to Even Euro Series vs. Magic.

Colin Rafferty –

Your Memphis Grizzlies will play the second of two games against the Orlando Magic today.

Live from foggy London town! They will look to be the Jekle to Hyde this morning as they dropped the first on Thursday in heart breaking fashion.

The Grizzlies were unable to continue the great start to the game eventually losing 111-118.

Jaren Jackson Jr. got the team going in the first half scoring 23 pts and looking like he was going to do anything he wanted down low.

That all changed in the second half.

Yes, that was the 10th game, in 40, that the Grizzlies have had a lead by at least 10 and lost the game.

They cannot expect to be in the play-in tournament at the end of the year with games going like that.

Despite all of that, the Grizzlies might have Ja Morant back since his calf contusion sidelined him at the beginning of 2026. This could be huge.

He is listed as PROBABLE, which is an actual designation by the Grizzlies PR team. According to Drew Hill, who covers the Grizz for the Daily Memphian, he says that Iisalo said (yes, I know confusing) Ja Morant is “trending to be in.”

This is what the NBA wanted, one of their premier stars playing in this series, Ja will be on a minutes restriction, but they will try to “maximize his minutes.”

Sounds like Adam Silver may have gotten involved with speeding up this process of getting him back on the court.

I, for one, hope and think that when Ja is out on the court, he will be impactful. He always is.

Santi Aldama was listed as QUESTIONABLE before today’s game but was seen out in shoot around wearing a sleeve on his leg that he suffered a calf contusion on the game Thursday.

The Grizz had a good game plan in the first half against the Magic and were hitting a lot of shots. The ball moved well and they seemed to have an answer for anything the Magic threw at them.

We need that same kind of energy today.

Late in the game guys like Anthony Black and Paolo Banchero torched the Grizz; Black hitting three’s and providing energy, Banchero dominating the glass and getting good looks from down low.

Jock Landale will have a tall task early, his physical play and ability to disrupt the big men will need to be focal points of the gameplan. The Magic used their size to their advantage late in the game.

Jaylen and Cam, buddies, we need something out of you today, Thursday was an abject failure to score the ball. Those two guys are too good not to score; I expect a better performance out of one if not both.

Having Ja back will help a lot of these problems, he is the leader, distributor, creator and actual true point guard.

If the Magic are holding him up, he will find the other guys, and they will need to be ready because it might come when they aren’t expecting it.

Take care of the ball and get back on defense, to not let the Magic get on runs where they use the full length of the court to get one pass and a bucket.

These are the things I would emphasize if I was Iisalo, we can beat them, just play a whole game.

Grizz fans will need to be up early and make sure their Amazon Prime Video capabilities are working.

Tip-off is at 11:00 AM CST inside the O2 Arena in London, England.

Grab your tea and crumpets, it’s the NBA in London bruv.