The Memphis Grizzlies finally lost a game on Monday night, their first of the year. But, of course, Ty Jerome was still the story. The Grizzlies point guard, who has gone full Linsanity Mode to start the season, rattled off 40 points on 64% shooting against the Pelicans.
He made five of his six 3-pointers. He made seven of his eight free throws. With the Grizzlies trailing 124-115 at the 1:43 mark, Jerome engineered a personal 9-0 run to close regulation and send the game to overtime.
TY JEROME HEATER TO FORCE OT!!! pic.twitter.com/kmet2W6esv Less than two weeks removed from opening night (when Jerome put 45 on the Jazz), it's obviously too early to have a real MVP discussion. But, if we could, Jerome would be in it. The league's sixth-leading scorer, he's now averaging 28.3 points per game on 50/42/88 shooting splits.
People are wondering: how is this possible? Wasn't this guy a G League player? But that was five years ago, and if you've been paying attention, you know he's been making consistent leaps as he has earned more and more opportunities.
It's not to say anyone could've seen this kind of scoring boom coming, but there were signs. Agfter bumping around with the Suns, Thunder and Warriors through the first four years of his career, Jerome, who had played well with whatever time he got specifically in OKC and Golden State, broke out with the Cavs during the 2024-25 season. He averaged 12.5 PPG on 51/44 shooting splits, finished third in Sixth Man of the Year voting, and became a legit go-to scorer in the playoffs.
In Clevaland's first-round sweep over the Heat, Jerome averaged over 16 PPG, making 10 of his 20 3-pointers and shooting 51% overall. In Game 1, he scored 16 of his 28 points on 6-of-7 shooting in the fourth quarter. Look deeper at that season, and you'll see that Jerome was an All-Star-level scorer relative to his playing time, averaging 22.7 points per 36 minutes.
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