Who do Grizzlies want to play?

Ja Morant said he doesn't care what team the Memphis Grizzlies play. So did Dillon Brooks. Coach Taylor Jenkins said he won't bother spending time in practice Tuesday discussing the team's potential opponent, not when the Minnesota Timberwolves and Los Angeles Clippers don't play their NBA play-in tournament game until that night.

You're inclined to agree with them, too.

It's exactly how these Grizzlies carried themselves through this magical regular season, morphing from a play-in qualifier last year to a fringe playoff contender to start this season to a credible Western Conferwho ence contender entering the postseason. They did it with sheer force of personality as much as anything. Their outright defiance at how they were initially perceived is tinged with just the right amount of precociousness and results to make Memphis one of the NBA'S more compelling and endearing storylines.

So of course it doesn't matter to them if it's the Timberwolves or the Clippers.

The Grizzlies think they'll win either series. Just like a No. 2 seed is supposed to think. Just like a team that recently beat the No. 1 seed without four of its five starters ought to be thinking. Just like they've spent the entire regular season thinking.

But there's an unintended consequence of the NBA'S second annual play-in tournament, its 10-gamestoo-long regular season, and the Grizzlies' historically successful and wildly engaging season. Everyone

isn't playing in the play-in tournament has a lot more time to think.

Memphis, for all intents and purposes, has been waiting for the NBA playoffs to start for a few weeks. It led everyone, at some point, to ask the same question the Grizzlies faced: Whom would you rather play?

I posed a version of it to an assistant coach for another Western Conference team over the weekend: Would you rather see Minnesota or the Clippers in a playoff series?

“I'm terrified to play against Ty,” he texted back, a reference to Clippers coach Tyronn Lue.

Grizzlies Bally Sports Southeast color analyst Brevin Knight was asked a similar question during a March 31 appearance on 92.9-FM ESPN. That's how bizarrely inconsequential the last couple weeks of the NBA'S regular season felt. He gave a slight edge to the Timberwolves

based on the specific matchups involved.

“Minnesota, if you just start to look at their athleticism, their length, they can neutralize a lot of the things (the Grizzlies) do well. There’s things they can take away,” Knight said. “The Clippers, we have an advantage they can’t stop even with Paul George playing.”

Let’s get into the tale of the tape then. Minnesota was four games better than the Clippers this season, but the Clippers had a better winning percentage than Minnesota in the 31 games George played.

Memphis is 4-0 against the Clippers this season, winning two games when George was hurt but also two games in which he played well, including a 42point outburst the first month of the season and a Jan. 8 game in which Morant didn’t play and Brooks hurt his ankle.

The Grizzlies are 2-2 against Minnesota. They won in overtime after a crazy Karl-anthony Towns buzzer beater at the end of regulation in November. They won to cap off their franchise-record 11game winning streak in January. They never played with Brooks in the lineup.

But the Timberwolves also handed Memphis its most lopsided loss of the season, one of the few low points the Grizzlies experienced.

Minnesota has Patrick Beverly to pester and instigate Morant on defense, and two elite scorers on the perimeter in Anthony Edwards and D’angelo Russell (only one of which Brooks can guard). Minnesota has Towns and a collection of length who can negate, and perhaps outflank, Jaren Jackson Jr.’s combination of skill and versatility.

The Clippers don’t have anyone to slow down Morant, who scored the most points per game in clutch situations in the NBA this season. But they do have George and Reggie Jackson, veterans who were key pieces on teams that went on long playoff runs and rank among the top 25 in the NBA in points per game in clutch situations this season. Los Angeles also just got trade deadline acquisition Norman Powell back from injury, to go along with George’s recent return. Kawhi Leonard, meanwhile, has been spotted on the Clippers’ practice court of late, and his return — however unlikely it may be— will loom over any series.

Never mind that these Clippers made it to the Western Conference finals without Leonard last season.

It’s for all those reasons, in the best interests of taking this season as far as it can go, I’d prefer a trip to Minneapolis in April over Los Angeles.

I’d prefer Jenkins match wits against a coach with less playoff experience than him in the first round, not one with an NBA title and four trips to the conference finals on his resume. I’d prefer the Grizzlies’ young nucleus and their one playoff win duel with this Timberwolves’ nucleus in their first playoff series.

I’d prefer an opponent like Minnesota that will push the tempo like Memphis wants rather than one with halfcourt scorers to slow it down like the Clippers. I’d prefer Minnesota, even though the Clippers’ big men are a huge liability.

Reasonable minds can disagree. The Grizzlies will be favored to win against either team. That’s the most important caveat of them all.

You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter: @mgiannotto

CHRISTINE TANNOUS / THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant attempts a pass while being guarded by Minnesota Timberwolves forward Jarred Vanderbilt and guard Patrick Beverley during the Grizzlies’ 116-108 victory on Jan. 13 at Fedexforum.