The NBA didn’t return to London to whisper.
On Sunday, the league staged the NBA London Game 2026 at The O2 Arena, bringing regular-season basketball back to the city for the first time since 2019. It wasn’t an exhibition dressed up as one. It counted. And Memphis made sure it felt that way.
The Memphis Grizzlies routed the Orlando Magic 126–109, turning what was marketed as a showcase into a statement performance behind Ja Morant’s return. Morant, back after missing time with a right calf contusion, finished with 24 points and 13 assists, shooting 7-of-13 from the field and 3-of-4 from three. In his 19th game of the season, he looked less like a player easing into rhythm and more like someone reclaiming it.
London has always done this for the NBA: it adds a little theater. The O2, built for spectacle, makes even routine possessions feel like they’re happening under brighter lights. The atmosphere had “All-Star event” energy, with Commissioner Adam Silver in attendance and former All-Stars present, the kind of crowd that turns a regular-season Sunday into a night that feels larger than the standings.
What made this specific London game resonate is the symmetry. Just days earlier, these same teams played in Berlin, an historic first for Germany’s regular-season stage, where Orlando produced a comeback win. London was the second stop on the NBA’s Europe swing, and Memphis clearly arrived intent on rewriting the script.
They rewrote it early.
Memphis exploded out of the gate and never let the game drift into the kind of coin-flip finish that neutral-site events sometimes create. By the time Orlando briefly cut the margin to 16 early in the second half, the Grizzlies responded with the kind of control that good teams summon when they sense the moment might turn. Reuters noted the Magic never seriously threatened after that.
The supporting cast helped make it decisive. Jock Landale gave Memphis a jolt off the bench with 21 points and eight rebounds, while Jaren Jackson Jr. added 17, and rookie Cedric Coward contributed 13. This wasn’t Morant freelancing his way through a tourist game. It was Memphis playing with structure, spacing, and pace, using Morant’s playmaking to generate clean shots and keep Orlando from ever finding a defensive foothold.
Orlando, for its part, didn’t fold so much as it got outmuscled by the night’s rhythm. Anthony Black led the Magic with 19 points. Wendell Carter Jr. scored 18, and Paolo Banchero flirted with a triple-double at 16 points, nine assists, and eight rebounds – productive numbers that still never felt like they were bending the game. London’s stage can magnify emotion, but it can’t manufacture momentum when the other team keeps punching first.
The bigger picture is what the NBA is trying to prove with London’s return. This was its 10th regular-season game in London, and The O2 framed it as part of a longer international timeline, dozens of NBA games in the UK since the early 1990s, with London now back in the regular-season rotation. After years where Paris became the league’s signature European stop, London’s re-entry felt like an acknowledgement that the UK market still matters, and that the league’s European ambitions aren’t a single-city story anymore.
But ambitions only work if the basketball holds up. This one did. Not because it was close, but because it was real. It featured a star returning in front of an international crowd and instantly playing like the headline. It featured a young Orlando team trying to absorb the moment and an opponent refusing to let them. It ended with the kind of clear, emphatic result that leaves no confusion about who owned the night.
London wanted the NBA back on its floor. Memphis made sure the NBA left London remembering Memphis.
