The Kings had Danny sink three three-pointers, and James hit two more in the second quarter.
The Grizzlies, by contrast, were relying almost entirely on Morant's isolation plays.
They were the team in the league that attempted and made the fewest three-pointers per game.
They barely relied on the three-point shot at all.
So when Danny and James combined for five three-pointers, the lead suddenly ballooned to ten.
The FedExForum, which had just begun to stir, fell quiet again.
Morant had racked up 42 points in the first half, an astonishing feat.
And yet the Grizzlies were still down by ten.
Grizzlies head coach Jenkins furrowed his brow.
This was completely at odds with the way his team played.
He had always insisted that the Grizzlies play team basketball during regulation.
But today, they had relied almost entirely on Morant's isolation plays.
Even though he had specifically told Morant to share the ball more during the break between quarters in the first, Morant had kept going one-on-one after returning to the court in the second.
Strangest of all, Jenkins himself had felt that Morant was doing nothing wrong.
After all, Hield was guarding Morant, and the interior defense looked thin, too.
So in the second quarter, he had even tacitly approved of Morant's isolation-heavy approach.
Now that he thought back on it, he felt as if he had fallen into a trap.
It was as if someone had been leading him around by the nose.
As they headed back to the locker room, he turned to look at Wang Yi on the Kings' side.
He couldn't shake the feeling that someone had set him up.
It was as though everything had gone according to Wang Yi's plan, and his own team had been following a script written by Wang Yi.