Ja Morant and the rest of Memphis’ talented core has learned lessons with each playoff trip.

MEMPHIS — Poking with a fork at small morsels in a plastic bowl, Jaren Jackson Jr. takes bite after bite as Dillon Brooks pleads just steps away for the Memphis big man to eschew the solid grub for nourishment in the form of a nutrient-rich smoothie.

“I’m hungry,” Jackson snaps almost jokingly.

Eventually, the 23-year-old relents to Brooks’ next suggestion of a postgame lift and recovery session.

So, nearly an hour after the team’s 151-114 beatdown of the Houston Rockets on March 24, the two longest-tenured players [Brooks and Jackson] for the Memphis Grizzlies stroll across an already empty locker room and disappear behind a back wall.

Just a small step in the process, you might think. But over the years Memphis has learned to embrace the minor, mundane details that drive progress toward major destinations.

It’s how the squad transitioned from the “Grit and Grind” era that featured seven-straight postseason appearances (2011-17) to traversing through a three-year drought of futility, before arriving at incremental improvement in each of its last two playoff appearances. Those experiences, coupled with a strong 2022-23 regular season wrought by adversity, leave the Grizzlies optimistic about reaching what coach Taylor Jenkins calls the team’s “lofty goal” of winning a championship.

“In Year 1 (2019-20), we talked about wanting to play meaningful games,” Jenkins said. “We get to the bubble, and we play in the Play-In Tournament. We know what our lofty goal is: to win a championship. So there’s stepping stones to get there. For me, it’s just focusing on what we can do every single day. That’s all I talk to these guys about. If you’re gonna win a championship, you’ve got to work backwards. Our guys focus on that one day at a time. That’s how I push them.”

Memphis certainly responded in capturing back-to-back Southwest Division titles, finishing the regular season No. 2 in the West at 51-31, while setting franchise records for scoring average (116.9 points), 3-pointers made (12.0), points in the paint (58.4) and fastbreak points (18.0) in addition to leading the Western Conference in defensive rating (110.7). The Grizzlies also topped the NBA in field goal percentage allowed (.453).

The bottom line, though, is that the most important segment to date of the journey commences Sunday (3 p.m. ET, ABC), when Memphis hosts the No. 7-seeded Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.

“Not trying to cherish the regular season at all,” Jackson said. “Regular season is great. It’s building blocks for the playoffs. It’s out the door. [The playoffs] are a whole other season, a whole other year.”

We know what our lofty goal is: to win a championship. So there’s stepping stones to get there. … That’s all I talk to these guys about. If you’re gonna win a championship, you’ve got to work backwards.”

— Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins

Learning the ropes in the playoffs

The Grizzlies were ousted in the 2022 West semis by the eventual-champion Warriors.

Jackson and Memphis’ core group — which includes Brooks, Ja Morant, Desmond Bane, Tyus Jones and Xavier Tillman — learned the hard way in 2020-21 about the playoffs. That season, the team advanced to the postseason for the first time since 2016-17 after knocking off a shorthanded Golden State Warriors team in an overtime classic on the road in the AT&T Play-In Tournament to snag the No. 8 seed.

The victory placed the Grizzlies in the path of a No. 1-seeded Utah Jazz team embarking on its fifth-straight postseason appearance after tallying the league’s best record (52-20) in a pandemic-shortened season.

School was in session, and Memphis gleaned valuable lessons.

“It was amazing,” Brooks told NBA.com of the experience. “Feeling that crowd, just feeling how you have to be so detailed in the playoffs. Everyone knows the plays. You can study all day, and you will. But something else has got to come out of you to play in those games.”

Memphis failed to find it, though, despite shocking Utah in Game 1 behind Brooks, who set a single-game franchise scoring record (31 points) for a Grizzlies player making his postseason debut. Morant — also in the playoffs for the first time — chipped in 26 points in a 112-109 victory. The Jazz swept the next four games though, dropping 47 points in the first quarter of a Game 5 rout that sent Memphis packing.

Immediately after the series, the Grizzlies convened.

“We were all together, and we were just like, we need to feel this more and more and more,” said Brooks, a sixth-year veteran and the longest-tenured member of the team. “That was good for us. Des[mond], me, Ja, Jaren … we all got a taste of that. So, now we’re just trying to have that snowball effect at the end of every single year going into the playoffs.”

The Grizzlies figured 2021-22 might yield better results, and it did as the club advanced to the playoffs for the second straight season. Memphis downed Minnesota in six games to open postseason play for its first series triumph since 2015. But the eventual 2022 champion Warriors awaited them in the Western Conference semifinals.

Injuries to Morant, Bane and Brooks slowed the Grizzlies in that series, as Jackson struggled with consistent foul trouble while Steven Adams landed in the league’s COVID protocols for Games 1 and 2.

Golden State eliminated Memphis 4-2 in a chippy, hard-fought semifinal series more competitive than the results indicated.

“That’s a group of young guys that are hungry,” Warriors forward Draymond Green said after the series. “They can be special.”

Growing together through adversity

Despite injuries, suspensions and other trials, the Grizzlies’ core remains a close-knit group.

Memphis’ immense potential would have to wait, however, as the club announced in June that Jackson underwent surgery to address a stress fracture in his right foot that would keep him off the floor four to six months. Keep in mind Jackson’s first two seasons ended abruptly due to knee injuries, before the big man produced a breakout campaign in 2021-22 (16.3 points, 5.8 rebounds and an NBA-best 2.3 blocks per game) as Memphis tied a franchise record with 56 wins.

So, expectations were soaring for Jackson heading into the season.

But he wouldn’t return to the lineup until Nov. 15. By then, Bane was sitting his second-straight game nursing a right big toe injury that would force him to miss 17 games.

A little more than two months later, leading rebounder Adams sprained his right posterior cruciate ligament diving for a loose ball on Jan. 22 and hasn’t played since. It’s reportedly unlikely he’ll return for the postseason, even after receiving a stem cell injection back in March to speed healing.

We really care about each other’s well-being. You can’t break our bond, and that’s kind of what we’ve been developing over these last couple of years, and it won’t fall off.”

— Grizzlies center Xavier Tillman

The tough blows continued when reserve big man Brandon Clarke tore his left Achilles in a March 3 loss at Denver. Then, adversity reached its crescendo in the early hours of March 4 when Morant flashed a gun at a Denver area night club on his Instagram Live feed. The social media gaffe led to an investigation that resulted in the NBA suspending the two-time All-Star guard for eight games without pay for conduct detrimental to the league.

Having sought counseling to better handle stress, Morant returned March 20 before joining his teammates on the floor two days later in a win against Houston. The Grizzlies welcomed back their star floor general with open arms.

“We have a really, really tight-knit group,” Tillman explained. “We’re really, really close with each other, and we really care about each other’s well-being. You can’t break our bond, and that’s kind of what we’ve been developing over these last couple of years, and it won’t fall off.”

In fact, Memphis stood firmly on team culture in bolstering depth for stretches in areas weakened by the absences of key players. A third-year vet, Tillman started in a career-high 29 games. Meanwhile, Jackson returned from missing the first 14 contests to put together a campaign worthy of Kia Defensive Player of the Year honors, while also morphing into a legit threat offensively late in the season by working to compensate for the scoring punch lost at times in the halfcourt.

Backup bigs such as Santi Aldama and David Roddy carved out enhanced roles due to extra minutes that could pay dividends down the road in the postseason.

Reserve point guard Tyus Jones finished the regular season averaging career highs in points (10.3) and assists (5.2).

Brooks, meanwhile, “accepted” and “owned” a changed role focused on fewer shots and more intensity as one of the club’s leaders and its designated defensive stopper. The 27-year-old appears poised to make the NBA’s All-Defensive team for the first time in his career.

But did all the adversity truly strengthen the Grizzlies?

“One-hundred percent,” Brooks said. “Guys got to play more minutes, and guys got to become confident in their roles. It’s all about confidence in your shot. You get that confidence by playing more games and feeling out the offense.

“Coach Taylor [Jenkins] does a great job of drilling into our minds [to] drive and kick, find guys that are open, let it fly, just be unconscious out there with your shots. And it gives guys confidence to shoot the ball. Ultimately, when you’re shooting the ball and feeling confident, the defense comes easy.”

‘No ceiling’ for these Grizzlies

Memphis has talented players at virtually every position, and star guard Ja Morant knows how to find them.

New addition Luke Kennard joined Memphis in February via a three-team trade after playing 168 games as a member of the LA Clippers, and quickly added a lethal dimension to the Grizzlies’ offense that provides Morant seemingly endless attack options.

At one point in the team’s 130-125 win vs. Houston on March 22 (in which Jackson reeled off a game-high 37 points), Morant looked up and saw himself surrounded by shooters in Bane, Kennard, Aldama, and Jackson.

This season, Bane connected on 40.8% from 3-point range, taking seven attempts per game, while Kennard drilled 54% from deep in 24 games with the Grizzlies after knocking down 44.7% with the Clippers in 35 games. The big men in that lineup — Jackson and Aldama — both shot better than 35% on 3-pointers in 2022-23.

There is no ceiling in my opinion…We’ve just got so many different people that show up, and it could be somebody different every night.”

— Grizzlies swingman Desmond Bane

“It’s definitely a lot of space, four shooters pretty much around me,” Morant said, smiling. “[They’re] really some guys you really can’t help off of [or] you’re giving up three points. With me being back and still getting that chemistry with that lineup, finding what works for us, [it’s] pretty much just getting to the paint and making the right plays, which I normally do. Having those guys out there is definitely an advantage.”

Especially when considering Morant’s standing as a relentless rim attacker and as last season’s leader in paint scoring. Then, there’s the rapid ascension of the explosive, athletic Jackson, who averaged 25.5 ppg on 57.1% shooting (and 41.7% on 3-pointers) over his final 13 games of 2022-23.

“I’m taking what the defense has given me,” Jackson said after last month’s win against Houston. “Being assertive and trying to abuse mismatches and just taking it upon myself to be dominant and not take a possession off. Really just try every time to get what I want and get to my spots. It’s all about spots, for real. I’m learning that more and more each game.”

Two nights later, Memphis scorched the Rockets again. This time, for a season-high 151 points, draining a franchise-record 25 3-pointers, led by Kennard, who matched a career high with 30 points off the bench by hitting 10-for-11 from deep.

Bane likened the chemistry and cohesion brewing in Memphis to a potential “pick your poison” situation for upcoming opponents, while Jones added “I don’t think we know what our ceiling is” as the Grizzlies prep to face the Lakers for the fourth time this season in Game 1 of that series. Los Angeles won the regular-season series 2-1 and enters the postseason fresh off a hard-fought victory against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Play-In.

“There is no ceiling in my opinion,” Bane said. “We’re a young team. You’ve seen Jaren’s been balling over the last couple of weeks, kind of coming into his own. Luke’s been a good addition to the rotation. Roddy’s showed up. We’ve just got so many different people that show up, and it could be somebody different every night.”

But on this cold, damp evening in an empty Grizzlies locker room, only Brooks and Jackson remain, as the party rages nearby on Beale Street. Fresh off the postgame work and recovery session, the longest-tenured Grizzly slides on a vest, bragging that “I’ve really got the drip in the closet,” while struggling to remember the title used by the second-longest tenured member of the team to describe his own personal stylist.

“Creative director,” Jackson blurts out, while pulling up a pair or red leather pants.

Everybody laughs. Then, the talk turns serious as Jackson walks away, leaving Brooks alone.

In his first year in the NBA, Brooks received “probably the best advice I could have at that time” from former Grizzlies point guard Mike Conley.

“He said to just take everything, every game for a learning experience,” Brooks said.

It’s a lesson the menacing shooting guard and the team continues to apply for a third-straight postseason with plans of advancing further in 2023 than ever before.

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Michael C. Wright is a senior writer for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.

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