Though the Memphis Grizzlies may have already been bounced by the OKC Thunder in round one of this year's postseason on Saturday, they have remained as vocal as a team that still finds itself in the running for an NBA title.
Over the days since their Game 4 ouster, several members of the organization have publicly discussed how the series ultimately wound up playing out.
Easily the most noteworthy quote from this post-sweep stretch was made by star guard Ja Morant, who stated during Sunday's exit interview that he had Oklahoma City "figured out" before going down with a hip contusion in Game 3 and, had he staved off injury, "we’d be on the way to OKC, series tied 2-2 right now."
While it's impossible to disprove a hypothetical such as this, for no one technically knows what would have happened had Morant not gotten hurt while Memphis was up 27 points mere minutes before halftime, based on how the series had been going up to this point -- and the fact that OKC overcame such a historic deficit therafter-- it's hard to believe that the top-seeds were in any real danger.
Nevertheless, this hasn't stopped others from echoing this highly confident and arguably delusional sentiment, as the star's backcourt running mate, Scotty Pippen Jr., was found singing a similar tune during an April 29 appearance on FanDuel TV's Run it Back.
Scotty Pippen Jr. echoes Ja Morant's take on series against OKC Thunder
"We all felt pretty well. We were winning at home... It could go either way, I feel like, if he doesn't go out," Pippen Jr. said.
Again, considering the fact that they were up by 27 before Morant's awkward fall and headed into halftime with a 77-51 lead, it's easy to see why Memphis would be infatuated with the "what could have been" scenarios.
However, let's look at the facts.
Prior to Game 3 the Grizzlies were outscored by 51 and 19, respectively, while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had been playing some of his least productive basketball in years.
On top of this, the Thunder came into the playoffs with a 4-0 edge with their regular season series (winning by an average point differential of 18.8) in 2024-25 and haven't lost in a head-to-head matchup against Memphis since December of 2022.
So, while having Ja Morant healthy for the entirety of the first round could have made things a bit more competitive, based on how things have played out between these two clubs both in recent and throughout a multi-year history, to see such conviction from the Grizzlies is quite surprising.