The Portland Trail Blazers play host to the Memphis Grizzlies at Moda Center on Wednesday.

The Grizzlies (2-1) were one of the surprises of the 2020-21 season, and they should have a 3-0 record this year. They actually led for a lot of their defeat against the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday, with Ja Morant missing a game-tying free-throw with 1.7 seconds remaining. He is certainly not the one to blame, though, collecting 40 points and 10 assists in that gem of a performance. That's pretty much the guy we've seen all year, with Morant leading the NBA with 35 points and eight assists per game. He was one of the breakout players last season, and this looks like he's ready to step into full-on superstar mode. What's been sneaky is the play of the role players, though, with Desmond Bane and De'Anthony Melton playing some beautiful basketball through the first three games. It'll be interesting to see how this rotation looks when Dillon Brooks returns but the more bodies, the better!

The Trail Blazers (1-2) have been about as volatile as it gets through their first three games. A home defeat at the hands of the Sacramento Kings in the opener had fans scratching their heads, but a blowout victory over the Phoenix Suns in the game prior had them cheering. That appeared to be a fluky stretch, but they went into LA on Monday and took a beatdown at the hands of the Los Angeles Clippers. They actually trailed by nearly 40 points in that lopsided defeat, getting another lousy performance from Damian Lillard. The superstar point guard missed all eight of his three's in that loss and is now just 2-of-24 from long range through the first three games. Every shooter goes through slumps like that, but this team needs him to start making some of those to end this mini slide.

These teams played three times last season, with Memphis prevailing in two of three.