Desmond Bane is putting up 24.9 points, 5.1 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game for the Grizzlies this season. Here’s the Memphis Commercial Appeal:
The barrage started with one of those 3-pointers only the best shooters make look easy, the type of 3-pointer that helped introduce Desmond Bane to Memphis Grizzlies fans when he first arrived two years ago.
He curled around a Steven Adams screen, caught a pass from John Konchar, turned over his right shoulder to square his body to the basket, set his feet on the left wing, and drilled a shot from three feet beyond the arc.
Bane, as it turned out, was only beginning, and the implications of that go well beyond a Wednesday night in Portland during the opening weeks of the season.
There has been no more important development for these Grizzlies through eight games than Bane’s latest evolution. It’s how they beat Portland, and how they closed out their first West Coast road trip with a 2-2 record. It’s how they’ve survived their early spate of injuries and ailments, maybe even more than those extraordinary Ja Morant performances.
We knew to expect that from Morant. We didn’t know yet how much better his sidekick would be.
