On the last day of Black History Month in the Grizzlies home game against the San Antonio Spurs, we saw so many “WTF” moments from Ja Morant, we had a hard time keeping track of them all.
A logo three-pointer ☑
A poster dunk over a 7-footer☑
An insane buzzer beater ☑
A 50-piece☑
Broke his own franchise record he set on Saturday ☑
Every quarter, he scored in the double digits: 14, 15, 10, and 13 points. ☑
Yes, all of this in a single game!! The Grindhouse, aka Ja’s House, was still buzzing from Morant’s poster dunk on 7-footer Jakob Poeltl when Steven Adams threw a full-court pass to Morant, who caught it midair and sank an acrobatic buzzer-beater from the left baseline to end the first half.
The Murray State standout tallied a career-high 52 points — a Grizzlies franchise record. In making 22 of 30 field goals, Morant set a new team record for field goal makes, and made all four of his three-point shots.
For Morant the most memorable part of the night was scoring a 50 piece. “Got to be the 50-ball, first in history,” said Morant. “I am not going to lie, I don’t know if I can talk about that right now. My head is all over the place. Thankful for my teammates, my coaches, they believe in me, have all the confidence in the world that I can go make the right play, and tonight they were looking for me. As I got close, they told me to go ahead and go get it. That is why you all saw, every time they got the ball, they were looking for 12. Credit goes to them, without them I would not be in the position I was in, they allow me to get to my spots with how well they can score the ball.”
“I was talking to Xavier Tillman, and he said that I had 39 at the time,” Morant added about going for the franchise record. “We had a decent lead, and I trust the guys on my team that when I am off the floor they keep us with the lead and boost it. Honestly, I did not know how it would play out, if I would come back in the game. Coach sent me back, and I had like 44, and Tyus Jones came and told me, ‘Go ahead and go get three layups.’ I said I was shooting the ball well right now,, what about two threes. ‘Everybody was like just run’, we’re gonna look for you and I listened. I scored the ball.”
“That dunk was crazy,” said De’Anthony Melton. “The way he rose, stared at him, then dunked it. That dunk was crazy for sure.”
Afterward the contest, Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich gave his assessment of Morant’s game: “I’m a little angry,” he joked. “I feel like if we held him in the 40s, we would’ve been okay. But no, he’s a beautiful player; what else can you say about him? It’s not just that he’s athletic. Some say it’s because he’s athletic or a freak of nature because he’s so fast — he’s got a lot of athletic ability, but so do a lot of those guys. He makes decisions, he knows what’s going on the court, he passes the basketball and he inherently understands space. He knows where he is on the court and where everybody else is, and when he has a lane he knows what to do. You combine that cerebral part of his game with the athleticism and you have a special kid.”
Popovich added, “I wish I had a camera so I could get a few pictures of it. It’s pretty special. He was pretty special, no doubt about that.”
“That’s a great player right there – he knows his strengths and he plays to them,” Spurs guard Lonnie Walker IV said of Morant’s performance. “His teammates fully trust and have his back behind that. They’re ready whenever he needs them. They’re pretty much ready whenever he’s passing the ball. It’s hard when in the first quarter they score 42 points — just attacking us going downhill and we were not ready to be in the paint and do what we do. He played fantastic. He was 22 for 30 which is insanely efficient.”
By the way, the Grizzlies won the game 118-105 to go 43-20 on the season.
Former Grizzlies player and Hall of Famer has a message for the league about Morant.
