The season debut of Grizzlies All-Star guard Ja Morant after the conclusion of his 25-game suspension on Tuesday was one of the most memorable regular-season games in franchise history. Morant scored 34 points, the final two on a floater at the buzzer for a 115-113 upset of a very good Pelicans team end Memphis' five-game losing streak. Morant makes his home season debut Thursday against Indiana in a spectacular individual matchup vs. Tyrese Haliburton. Morant is set at over/under 30.5 points with the Grizz at -2.5 on the SportsLine consensus.
The sportsbooks originally opened Morant at 24.5 points for Tuesday because Memphis coach Taylor Jenkins said that the team's franchise player would not play "crazy minutes" and hinted at the low 30s. Morant played 35 and was 12-for-24 from the field but 0-for-5 from deep to finish with 34. A whopping 27 of those points came in the second half. Morant scored his sixth career game-winning basket (including the playoffs) and his third career buzzer-beater. The Grizzlies scored 74 points after halftime, the team's highest-scoring half of the season, to complete a 24-point comeback. It was the third largest come-from-behind road victory in team history.
During the timeout before the final play, Morant started to cramp up and suggested a play-call: a post-up for power forward Jaren Jackson Jr. But fellow guard Desmond Bane, according to ESPN, rejected that. It ended up simply being a Morant isolation. He beat Pelicans stud defender Herbert Jones with a spin move in the lane before laying the ball in. Morant had three go-ahead field goals in the final 90 seconds, all on iso drives against Jones. That tied for the most go-ahead buckets in the final 1:30 of a fourth quarter by any NBA player in the past 25 years.
"I feel like it was the perfect ending, perfect day," Morant said.
Jackson Jr. scored 24 points and Bane added 22 as Memphis moved to 5-0 all-time when Morant, Jackson Jr. and Bane all score at least 20 points in a game.
Normally, I would say that 30.5 points is too high for Morant as his career-high average is 27.4 points, and he is a point guard who will share the ball – he had eight assists on Tuesday. But the Pacers play lightning fast and Morant surely will be motivated to face off against Haliburton, who has arguably replaced Morant as the NBA's most exciting point guard this season. Haliburton has 18 double-doubles while leading the NBA in assists. The Indiana star is set at O/U 24.5 points.
There was some hope that guard Marcus Smart could return from a foot injury Thursday for the Grizzlies as he has been practicing but is likely to miss a 15th straight game. The team should take off once he's back in the fold alongside Morant.
It's the second game of a back-to-back for Indiana after the NBA's highest-scoring team hung 144 points on Charlotte in an easy home win Wednesday to snap a four-game skid. Center Myles Turner recorded 18 points and six rebounds in 25 minutes after missing a game due to a hamstring injury. It's not out of the question that Turner gets Thursday off. Because Indiana played last night, it hasn't released its report yet. The Pacers have dropped the past four in the series.
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