Ja Morant closed his rookie campaign with a bang.
The 2019 second overall pick and Rookie of the Year frontrunner scored a career-high 35 points on 13-of-28 shooting with 8 assists and 4 rebounds on Saturday. However, it wasn’t enough for the Memphis Grizzlies to avoid elimination in a 126-122 thriller against the Portland Trail Blazers.
As fun as it was to see a 21-year-old go toe-to-toe with Damian Lillard with a playoff berth on the line, Morant’s performance became even more impressive when he revealed to reporters that he played the last four games with a fractured thumb.
And yet, he was still able to do things like this:
blink and he’s gone…… @JaMorant | #MemphisVsErrrbody pic.twitter.com/MJzl7JfVPz
— Memphis Grizzlies (@memgrizz)
Morant had one word to describe the performance on Twitter after the game.
warrior. https://t.co/gFD4ucj4i2
— Ja Morant (@JaMorant)
That performance and more gives enough reason to expect great things from Morant and the Grizzlies in the future, including a Rookie of the Year award that is clearly headed the point guard’s way.
A team centered around players as young as Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr. (20), Dillon Brooks (24) and Brandon Clarke (23) isn’t supposed to come close to the playoffs in a stacked Western Conference. And yet, the Grizzlies were just two wins from a series against the Los Angeles Lakers despite losing Jackson for the season midway through the bubble.
If that core hits its potential, the Western Conference is going to have plenty to worry about.
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