- Morant returned to an NBA court on Tuesday night after serving a 25-game ban
- He scored a superb game winner to hand the Grizzlies a win over New Orleans
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Ja Morant made an emphatic return to NBA action on Tuesday night as he scored the game winner to give the Grizzlies a 115-113 win over the Pelicans.
Morant, who stepped onto the court for the first time this season after serving a 25-game suspension for gun play, scored 34 points on his season debut.
He capped a stirring performance with a spinning dribble in the lane to set up a game-winning floater as time expired on Tuesday night.
Morant finished the night with 34 points, six rebounds, and eight assistsÂ
The Grizzlies, who entered on a five-game losing streak and were 6-19 in Morant’s ban for his social media antics with guns, trailed by 24 in the first half but took a 113-111 lead on Morant’s inside basket with 1:22 to go.
Ja Morant made an emphatic return to NBA action, hading the Grizzlies a win over the Pelicans
The Pelicans tied it and the teams exchanged missed three-pointers before Morant’s winner.Â
Morant was booed heartily by partisan Pelicans fans during pregame introductions and also when he handled the ball on the opening possession.
Those boos died down as the game wore on, and a section of visiting fans near the Memphis bench made themselves heard as Morant explosively scored eight points – twice hitting difficult driving shots as he was fouled – in a span of 1:20 early in the third quarter.
The spectators on hand for Morant’s comeback included LSU Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Jayden Daniels, who sat next to Tigers star receiver Malik Nabers in the front row new New Orleans’ bench.
Although Morant looked winded at times and didn’t hit many jumpers, his ability to drive into the paint – and finish – looked undiminished.
His repertoire included crossover dribbles to set up high floaters in the lane, finger rolls, and double-pump bank shots while hanging in the air.
Jaren Jackson Jr. scored 24 points and Desmond Bane had 21 for Memphis, which also helped snap the Pelicans’ four-game winning streak.
Brandon Ingram scored 34 points for New Orleans, but Zion Williamson’s time on the court was limited by foul trouble and he finished with just 13 points.
Footage from inside the arena shows he was booed when he was introduced to the crowd
Morant was singing with friends when caught holding up a handgun during a livestream video
Although they play in the same division, it was just the seventh time Morant and Williamson – the top two NBA draft choices in 2019 – had appeared in the same game, mostly because of Williamson’s health issues.
Speaking after the game, Morant said: ‘I’m a dog, I’m a dog. I’ve been putting work in man. I haven’t played a game in eight months, had a lot of time to learn myself.Â
‘A lot of hard days where I went through it but basketball is my life, what I love, therapeutic to me and I’m just excited to be back.’
Asked about the game-winning play, he replied: ‘I really didn’t want coach to call the timeout. That’s why I told him… yeah that’s the play I wanted to run right there.Â
‘They believed in me. I actually wanted to go on a trip to the post, they told me no so I had to deliver for them.’
Morant also praised his Grizzlies teammates for their support. He said: ‘They’re my guys, my brothers. We put in the work together. Hard practices. Light practices. Treatment. Flights. We spend a lot of time together.
‘Through this process, they’ve helped me out a lot.Â
‘Just saying positive things, telling me to stay true, keep working and they showed right there with them believing in me and it shows how excited everybody else is for me to be back.’
