Tonight, our wager is a half unit on the Grizzlies to cover the -2.5 spread at home in Memphis against the Pacers. It’s Ja Morant’s second game back, and while it might be a slight overreaction, his presence in his first game back made a drastic impact to the Grizzlies offense. The Grizzlies already held a top 10 defense, so the offensive spark he provides is significant. Ja and the Grizzlies will take on a Pacers team that is really struggling right now after starting the season scorching hot. The Pacers lost four in a row before grabbing a win against Charlotte yesterday. That win against the Hornets is not enough to erase our concerns about their poor defense and shooting over the last 2 weeks. It’s interesting to note that the Grizzlies have won their last 11 games at home against opponents who are playing their second night of a back-to-back. Memphis is currently in a home slump. With Ja back in action, and a vastly improved Desmond Bane to pick up the slack of their injury-riddled bench, the blueprint for the Grizzlies to win home games is back in place. The Pacers have struggled against defensive-minded teams this season, going 3-6 in games against teams ranked top 10 in defensive efficiency. While Memphis might still be the least efficient offensive team in the league, it’s only a matter of time until they find themselves back inside the top 20. It took Memphis about 24 minutes in their game against the Pelicans to start looking like last year’s Grizzlies. Our stake is a half unit on the Grizzlies to win and cover.