National Basketball Association

3 points: Ja Morant is back, the Bulls are alright and the Bucks need to be better

Published Dec. 28, 2023 10:46 a.m. ET

Christmas has come and gone, which means we've reached the meat of the NBA regular season. With that in mind, let's check in on two once-floundering teams on the rise and one contender's potential fatal-flaw.

1. Ja Morant's return should have the Warriors concerned.

We all knew that Ja Morant's return after a 25-game suspension would change things for the Grizzlies. But it also seems that amidst all the off-court drama with Morant many NBA observers — and I'm guilty here, too — forgot just how dominant an on-court force Morant is.

Morant returned to action in mid-December. The Grizzlies are 4-0 with him in the lineup, including two impressive wins over the New Orleans Pelicans. The first of those victories was sealed with a Morant buzzer-beater.

The lack of rust has been jarring. Morant is as electric as ever. He's averaging 28.8 points, 8.5 assists and 5.3 rebounds per game through four games. More impressive is the 20.5 points per game he's averaging in the paint, a number that technically leads the league. This is the part where we remind you that Morant is a rail-thin 6-foot-2 point guard!

The Grizzlies right now are 10-19. They trail the Golden State Warriors by 4.5 games for the final play-in spot. Given the way things are going there — and in Los Angeles, where the Lakers are only five games ahead of the Grizzlies and are always one LeBron James injury away from falling off a cliff — there's a shot Memphis makes things interesting in the West down the stretch.

2. The Bulls are very clearly better without Zach LaVine

In games where Zach LaVine on the court, the Bulls are 5-13. In games without him, they're 8-4. They've been 10 points per 100 non-garbage time possessions better without him, according to Cleaning the Glass. The Bulls aren't just feasting on weak opponents, either; during this stretch they've racked up road victories over the Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers and blew out the Lakers at home.

Watch the Bulls play and you can see the difference. On offense, the ball is pinging around the floor. There's more room for other Bulls to operate. Coby White has made a leap in LaVine's absence — he's averaging 17.7 points, five assists and 4.2 rebounds per game, and is drilling 39.7% of his 3s. And Patrick Williams, the 4th overall pick in the 2020 draft, no longer looks like a complete bust. The Bulls' LaVine-less starting lineup — which features Ayo Dosunmu in LaVine's place — has outscored opponents by 17.4 points per 100 possessions.

"Now you may say, ‘Why weren't you playing that way at the beginning, why it looks different?'" Bulls head coach Billy Donovan said during a recent press conference.

"I think there's been some improvements made of how we need to play. As long as we're moving the ball, passing the ball, not holding it." Donovan did go on to add that, "I believe that if [LaVine] can come back healthy, that hopefully he'll thrive a great deal in what we're trying to do." But it was also a revealing comment.

The ironic part for the Bulls is that, with LaVine on the trade block, this run is not exactly helping his value. It's funny to imagine the Bulls' front office growing more annoyed after every win. But this is the most exciting stretch of Bulls basketball in a long time.

3. The Bucks' transition defense could cost them a title shot

Despite all the drama and weirdness in Milwaukee, the Bucks are 22-8. Giannis Antetokounmpo is playing the best basketball of his career, Khris Middleton looks healthy and Damian Lillard has been unstoppable in crunch time. But the Bucks do have a problem on defense, where they rank 20th in the league.

Last year, the Bucks were fourth in defense. So what's the difference this season? Losing Jrue Holiday has hurt their perimeter defense. More troubling, though, is how bad the Bucks have been at slowing down opposing transition attacks.

No team this season has allowed a greater percentage of transition opportunities than the Bucks, according to Cleaning the Glass, and no team has allowed more fast break points; last season the Bucks were eighth in fast break points allowed per game.

Maybe this is just a case of a veteran group taking its foot off the gas during the regular season. But if you're the sort of person who thinks this time of year is about building proper habits for the playoffs, then this is the sort of thing that should be concerning.

Yaron Weitzman is an NBA writer for FOX Sports and the author of Tanking to the Top: The Philadelphia 76ers and the Most Audacious Process in the History of Professional Sports. Follow him on Twitter @YaronWeitzman.

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