Last Friday night, on the court at least, it felt like Ja Morant lodged a kind of silent protest. 

Returning on Monday night from a one-game suspension, it felt more like Morant was suffering an ordeal.

He declined to take questions before the game, went through his pregame shooting routine with the hood up on his sleeveless sweatshirt and then played 35 largely effective but stoic minutes in a 114-106 loss to the Detroit Pistons. 

Can Morant get his joy back? He says ‘We’ll see’

At the end, his stick-to-the-script answers about his suspension almost ruefully matched his coach’s pregame party line. 

Have the issues between Morant and Tuomas Iisalo been resolved?

“We had a discussion and we’re all looking to move forward,” said Iisalo before the game. 

“Y’all asked that question to them,” Morant said after the game. “Y’all know the answer to that.”

The demonstrative, communicative Morant fans witnessed in the season’s opening three-game homestand seemed like a distant memory Monday. 

Even in the fourth quarter, when Morant lent the game a needed jolt of excitement — launching off the floor to hammer down a transition lob from teammate Vince Williams Jr. and cut what had been a 21-point Detroit Pistons lead to seven — Morant’s mood didn’t seem to change. 

One of the few times when Morant was expressive on the floor was after a second-quarter turnover, when he seemed to gesture to Iisalo that he didn’t have enough space to operate. 

It may be that Morant’s seemingly out-of-proportion reaction Friday night — his quiet-quitting second half of play, his postgame venting at the coaching staff — overshadowed some legitimate frustrations. 

And it may be that Monday night highlighted them. 

In the first half the whole team looked a little rattled, losing dribbles, mishandling passes and slapping at rather than corralling loose balls. 

Grizzlies comeback falls short against Pistons

It’s hard to have space when the starting wings, Jaylen Wells and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, shoot 0-10 from 3. They both looked good in preseason and have so far left their games, or at least their shots, there. 

Wells bobbled two alley-oop feeds. Center Jock Landale lacked the hops to clear a defender for another. 

Iisalo’s quick rotations seem to sometimes take out players just as they’re heating up. You could ask Jackson about that, but he’s too polite to complain. 

“There’s so many things that go into it,” Jackson said after the game. “Matchups, foul trouble. Rhythm. If you’re hot, if you’re not. There’s a lot of things that go into that. Frankly, I wouldn’t want to coach. I don’t envy them at all.”

Iisalo has found his way to more effective lineups over the course of games, but often after cold starts have been too much to overcome. 

“I feel like we get going,” said Iisalo, acknowledging a pattern tracking back to the preseason. “That’s very good that we have this extra gear, but probably it would make more sense to put it in right away, in the first quarter.

“So, I don’t have a great answer for you, but we see the same thing.”

That’s all basketball stuff. 

But as near as anyone can tell, basketball stuff is what this latest episode of Morant unhappiness seems to be about.

Everyone knew this would be a transition year for the roster around Morant and co-star Jackson, but a spate of summer and preseason injuries suggest it should also evolve in-season.

Zach Edey is coming, maybe soon. Rookie Cedric Coward’s role will grow. Ty Jerome and, at some point, Scotty Pippen will return to give the backcourt some juice, to reduce the burden on Morant. 

Box score: Pistons 114, Grizzlies 106

It’s a transition season also happening with a young European head coach in his first full season at the helm of an NBA team, and perhaps he has his own growing pains to go through. 

Iisalo’s ability to get and maintain buy-in, to garner the patience needed to give this work-in-progress roster and work-in-progress approach time to gel, was always a question, and it’s suddenly a too-pressing one. 

On Monday, Iisalo cited “adaptability and pragmatism” as keys to working through these early struggles. Those skills are now being put to a test. 

All of this feels like it’s coming too early. The Grizzlies were 3-2 and had a 14-point halftime lead in their sixth game when Morant checked out for a half. 

This needs time. Is Morant willing to give it?

Grizzlies coach says discussions with Morant to remain ‘internal’

For now, Morant looks like someone struggling to summon belief when he’s a player the team needs to help instill it in others. 

Maybe the burden on Morant is about more than spacing on the floor. 

There’s a growing gap between what Morant is supposed to be and what he’s actually been recently, and who can say how those pressures may weigh on him? There’s a clock ticking between Morant and the franchise, with two more seasons on his current contract, with no hint of extension talks last summer. 

When Morant was suspended over the weekend, you could hopefully wonder whether that fissure could ultimately be a breakthrough. What do they say? The only way out is through? 

But Monday night suggests there’s a lot more “through” to do.

Grizzlies fall to Raptors as Ja Morant serves one-game suspension

Morant’s an emotional and temperamental player, a quality behind both some of his best and worst basketball moments. Morant once said, “a happy Ja is a scary Ja,” but happiness has been elusive. 

He was asked Monday night if he has his old joy right now.

The answer was clear, but Morant gave it anyway.

“No.”

What can be done to get it back? 

Grizzlies coach looking forward to ‘moving on’ from Morant suspension

“We’ll see,” said Morant, and the uncertainty of what that meant hangs in the air for the franchise.

Was it a shrug or a portent?

Jackson, as steady as Morant is temperamental, offered a more optimistic variation on “the only way out is through.”

How could Morant regain his joy? 

“I mean everybody likes winning, so I think it just comes from doing the right stuff to get wins,” said Jackson. “There’s ups and downs in every season. I think the only way is up, man.”

Maybe winning heals, but the Grizzlies will need to wait on that at least a little longer. And based on the way Monday night ended, it’s not clear winning alone will be enough.