Tag: Steven Adams

Steven Adams reportedly called Ja Morant out in a team meeting before he posted his gun video

Steven Adams tried to help Ja Morant

It’s been a pretty rough week for Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies.

Last week started with reports about different bouts of aggression that, ultimately, led to police investigations on Morant. The Grizzlies All-Star wasn’t charged, but that’s still not a good look.

To follow that up, though, he also brought an apparent gun to a nightclub in Denver on Saturday after the Grizzlies’ matchup against the Nuggets. This has turned into a huge deal. Morant has been suspended by the team and there’s no timetable for his return. Morant is also reportedly being investigated by the Colorado police department for the gun he was carrying while on the road in Denver.

What makes that even worse, though, is that this could’ve all been avoided if Morant had just listened to his teammates. Steven Adams, in particular.

He didn’t call Morant out by name, according to a report from The Athletic’s Shams Charania, but Adams did talk about discipline and staying “away from going out” on the road in a team meeting. And that was before his IG Live video at the Denver nightclub.

“I’m told there was a playeres only meeting recently where Steven Adams, there veteran center, he spoke out about how the team needs to show better discipline on the road…And I’m told, those in the room, when Steven Adams spoke out, they knew exactly who he was directing this to. It was no one other than Ja Morant. And, so, clearly, Ja Morant still went out in the early hours of Saturday. That video was posted with a gun, and there’s questions.” 

Morant is one of the NBA’s brightest young stars. You absolutely hate to see things like this happening to him.

But this is a situation he put himself in. And it’ll be on Morant to pull himself out of it. Obviously, there are folks who are trying to help him along the way and that’s a great thing. Let’s hope Morant opens himself up to that a bit more next time.

Sixers assess play of Joel Embiid, battle with Steven Adams in loss

The Philadelphia 76ers assess the play of Joel Embiid in his battle with Steven Adams in a loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.

The Philadelphia 76ers had a tall task on Friday when they paid a visit to the FedEx Forum to take on the Memphis Grizzlies. Still short-handed, Philadelphia needed everybody to step up in order to come away with a win over a very talented Grizzlies team.

The Sixers got a big performance out of Joel Embiid who had 35 points, 12 rebounds, and eight assists, but it wasn’t enough in a 117-109 loss to the Grizz on Friday. Philadelphia is now 0-2 on this 3-game road trip which finishes up on Monday against the Houston Rockets.

Embiid shot 13-for-26 from the floor as he was able to have some offensive success against burly Memphis big man Steven Adams who has a tendency of giving the big fella some trouble.

“I thought Joel was fine,” coach Doc Rivers told reporters. “He was aggressive. He scored, he passed the ball, he’s doing a lot of good things for the team, and I thought we played at a good pace. The problem is, and I go back to the turnovers and offensive rebounds, how many fast breaks that we have and didn’t score and came up empty on? Those are the things we have to do better. We definitely missed some ball handling. You can see that, but we knew that we just have to deal with.”

The caveat with Embiid is, and Rivers alluded to it, is the offensive rebounds. Adams had 10 offensive rebounds on Friday for Memphis. That just cannot happen if a team wants to win on the road.

“They just killed us, and Adams is great, I’ll give them credit,” Rivers added. “We even double-teamed him twice on the glass, and he still got them. So that’s something we’ll watch. There were a couple more that I thought we could have gotten and just kept it alive, but that hurt us.”

In the end, despite Embid’s best efforts, it was the inability to keep Adams off the offensive glass and Philadelphia’s inability to take care of the ball as they dropped to 12-11 on Friday.

“We had too many spurts where we weren’t the most physical team and didn’t give the 50-50 basketball, and they killed us on the boards and just were able to create extra possessions,” added Tobias Harris. “I thought offensively, we had, through the course of the game, good looks that we normally would take on any given night that didn’t fall for us, and that hurt.”

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Steven Adams told the silliest story about Spurs rookie Jeremy Sochan pinching his nipple

Sochan was trying to break Adams’ concentration.

If you’re going to succeed in the NBA, you need to find ways to have some sort of competitive advantage.

When you are a rookie, it is not easy to match up with someone like Steven Adams. The Memphis big man is 6-foot-11, 250 pounds, and easily one of the physically strongest players in the league. Earlier this year, he was able to lift and physically move 6-foot-10 center Tony Bradley like it was not even a big deal.

Spurs rookie Jeremy Sochan, however, had an interesting strategy to get into Adams’ head on Thursday. During the last possession of the game, according to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon, Sochan was “pinching” Adams and punched his nipple to break his concentration.

San Antonio’s Keldon Johnson said Adams called Sochan a “dirty little [expletive]” after the possession, per Mike Finger. Spurs big man Jakob Poeltl added Sochan is constantly “looking for trouble” whenever he is on the floor.

Before the 2022 NBA Draft, Sochan told For The Win that he wants to get players off rhythm.

“I’m trying to be that disruptive player like Draymond Green, Patrick Beverley, and Jae Crowder. They all have one thing in common and it’s being irritating. Being long and athletic and disruptive, that’s what I try to show in my game and my defense. It helps to get some players off rhythm. I just try to execute that as well.”

It sounds like he did exactly that when he was matched up with Adams.

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Grizzlies players borrow Ronaldo’s ‘SIIIUUU!’ celebration after victory, and the vibes are immaculate

It’s probably fun to yell SIUUUUUU.

After finishing with one of the best records in the NBA last season, the Memphis Grizzlies (4-1) are once again off to a hot start to their new campaign.

The Grizzlies are deep with contributors, and they are not afraid to play their young players. Due to injuries suffered by key players Jaren Jackson Jr. and Ziaire Williams, Memphis has already found minutes in the rotation for their rookies Jake LaRavia and David Roddy.

LaRavia has looked particularly impressive, beginning his career shooting 9-for-15 (60.0%) on 3-pointers. He logged nearly 30 minutes during a victory over the Kings on Thursday, and he was interviewed after the game.

LaRavia began the walk-off interview by himself, but within seconds, he was joined by third-year big man Xavier Tillman. The former Michigan State star stood behind LaRavia like he was his bodyguard.

Shortly after that, veteran guard Tyus Jones joined the party. He exclaimed variations of “yeah rook!” and “shoot the ball, rook!” as LaRavia answered questions from the reporter.

“I got my dogs with my fosho,” said LaRavia, who finished the game with 9 rebounds as well as 1 assist and 1 steal while only missing one attempt from the field.

When the reporter asked about LaRavia’s rebounding, Tillman began flexing for the camera as Steven Adams and Jaren Jackson Jr. joined. But to end the interview, the group yelled “SIIIUUU!!” like Christiano Ronaldo.

Adams, who was the apparent leader of the celebration, met Ronaldo back in 2016.

Below, you can watch Ronaldo’s version from a post-match interview:

Chief receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster broke out the “Siu!” after a touchdown last week, too.

As it grows in popularity, however, some fans have noticed that Ronaldo may have stopped using the celebration for himself and replaced it with something else.

Either way, it was such a delight to watch Memphis teammates rejoice with LaRavia after the best performance of his NBA career thus far.

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Steven Adams is the biggest X-factor in the Warriors-Grizzlies series

How far can Adams’ impact go?

As is the case with every one of the NBA’s other conference semifinals, five meetings between the Warriors and Grizzlies have done nothing but confuse me from game to game. One night, Team A seems to have cracked the code on how to beat Team B, and the next night it’s a completely different story. Such is playoff basketball.

All of the wonkiness of this great series leaves me confused about what to expect in Games 6 and (potentially) 7. But one thing that I can confidently say is that Steven Adams is making a difference for Memphis.

Adams missed the first two games of the series as he battled COVID-19 and then played just garbage-time minutes in the Game 3 beatdown that the Grizzlies caught from the Warriors. But he returned to the starting lineup and regular minutes in Games 4 and 5. Here’s his impact in those games:

Offensive Rating: 132.4

Defensive Rating: 87.9

Net Rating: 44.5

Each of the three numbers listed above is the best on the Grizzlies over the two games, which includes a Game 4 in which Adams inexplicably sat the final eight minutes as the Warriors climbed out of an impossible hole.

What exactly is Adams doing out there to provide so much impact?

First, don’t sleep on what kind of physical impact a 6’11, 265-pound man can have on the opposition throughout a game, especially when the opposition’s biggest player is…Andrew Wiggins? Draymond Green?

Adams’ ability to set screens and grab offensive rebounds are difference-makers in allowing the Grizzlies easier opportunities on that end, and his passing, specifically out of the high-post, is a vastly underrated quality.

But the most eye-popping takeaway is his defense. You would think that his speed limitations would make him susceptible to abuse from Golden State’s guards in a way that Nikola Jokic was in the Warriors-Nuggets first-round matchup. And whether the Warriors simply aren’t tracking him, or he and the Grizzlies are doing things to combat any Golden State offense, Adams is giving Memphis a boost that it lacked in Games 1 and 2.

He’ll have to remain a key player in Game 6 if Memphis (+8.5 at Tipico) is going to continue to survive, but these playoffs have shown how quickly things change night after night.

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Celtics injury update: Memphis Grizzlies to sit Morant, Adams, Jackson, Brooks in 2021-22 season finale

The move will allow Boston to choose their seeding destiny.

The Memphis Grizzlies have announced that they will sit several key players in theirs and the Boston Celtics’ final game of the 2021-22 NBA season, which in turn will allow the Celtics to choose their seeding destiny heading into the 2021-22 NBA Playoffs.

Memphis announced that Steven Adams (ankle soreness), Dillon Brooks (hip soreness), Jaren Jackson, Jr. (thigh soreness), Tyus Jones (hand soreness), Ja Morant (knee soreness), Tyrell Terry (foot soreness), and Killian Tillie (knee soreness) all are out for Sunday night’s season-ending contest, with Desmond Bane (foot soreness) and Brandon Clarke (thigh contusion) listed as questionable.

With the Milwaukee Bucks playing the Cleveland Cavaliers without several key players of their own out to rest before the postseason, the Celtics may be in a position to rest players themselves if dropping to a lower seed seems more desirable — or to play good players and seize the second seed for themselves.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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OKC Thunder player grades: SGA, Darius Bazley combine for 60 points in 125-118 loss to Grizzlies

SGA & Baze combining for 60 points, Steven Adams’ return and uniform mix ups are the biggest highlights of Sunday’s loss.

The Oklahoma City Thunder come up short against the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday, 125-118.

This was a good loss for the Thunder as they fought to the wire against a Grizzlies team that is the second seed in the Western Conference playoffs standings. The Grizzlies led by as much as 18 points and for double digits for the majority of the game, but the Thunder were never out of the game and continued to stay competitive despite the lead only changing three times.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Darius Bazley were the headliners for the Thunder in this game as they combined for 60 points. This included Bazley scoring a career-high in points and Gilgeous-Alexander finishing with another 30-point performance.

Meanwhile, for the Grizzlies, it was an evenly distributed scoring output as seven of the 10 players who stepped on the floor this game scored in the double digits. Desmond Bane led the way with 21 points.

Overall, this was a productive loss. The shorthanded Thunder were able to make this a game until the final buzzer against one of the best young teams in the league. Let’s take a look at player grades.

OKC Thunder news: Steven Adams returns to Oklahoma City to play in front of crowd in over two years

This is the first time Steven Adams has played in front of an OKC crowd since March 3, 2020.

Memphis Grizzlies center Steven Adams makes his long-awaited return back to Oklahoma City in front of a live crowd on Sunday for the first time since being traded by the franchise in 2020.

Adams played his first seven seasons with the Thunder from 2013 to 2020, where he averaged 9.8 points and 7.6 rebounds in 530 career games. In terms of where Adams ranks in the franchise in terms of all-time statistical leaders, the 28-year-old is ranked second in offensive rebounds, seventh in total rebounds, fifth in blocks and first in field goal percentage.

Now while this is the first time Adams has played in front of an Oklahoma City crowd in over two years, this is not the first time he’s returned to play in the city. Adams played a game last season at Oklahoma City, but did it in front of an empty arena as the Thunder played the entirety of the 2020-21 season without fans.

Being an all-time favorite due to his playstyle and personality, expect to hear a roaring ovation for Adams before the game starts on Sunday.

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Grizzlies season preview: How strong is Ja Morant, Jaren Jackson duo?

With Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson, both only recently 22 years old, the Memphis Grizzlies may have the best duo of young players in the NBA.

With Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson, both only recently 22 years old, the Memphis Grizzlies may have the best duo of young players in the NBA.

Memphis is building well around Morant, who is clearly one of the league’s top rising stars. They still have some weaknesses, like an ability for anyone else beyond Morant to crate their own offense off the bounce. But they have enough depth — and enough tenacity on defense — to at least put up a fight on both sides of the ball.

Below, check out our preview for the 2021-22 Grizzlies campaign.

Cavaliers’ Evan Mobley working out with NBA veteran Steven Adams

The Cavaliers rookie was spotted recently in Los Angeles working out with Grizzlies center Steven Adams.

Cleveland Cavaliers rookie Evan Mobley was spotted recently in Los Angeles working out with Memphis Grizzlies center Steven Adams and NBA trainer Olin Simplis.

Mobley went to work with Adams after a strong showing in the Las Vegas Summer League. He averaged 11.3 points, 7.7 rebounds, three assists and 1.7 blocked shots in three games. Mobley produced his best game on Aug. 11 with 14 points, seven rebounds and six assists.

The opportunity to train against a veteran like Adams should prove to be very beneficial for Mobley. Adams has often been regarded as perhaps one of the strongest players during his eight years in the league and can be a tough defender inside the paint.

Mobley enters next season with high expectations as the third overall pick. He projects to be a great addition to the Cavaliers’ frontcourt as a player that can make an impact on both ends of the floor. He believes he can be a generational player in the NBA and it is easy to see why.

This post originally appeared on Rookie Wire! Follow us on Facebook!

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