The Grizzlies could play again without their floor leader on Monday. Ja Morant is listed as questionable against Minnesota due to right foot soreness, the team’s PR department tweets. Morant, who is averaging 21.4 points and 7.5 assists, has already missed 18 games this season and is ineligible for postseason honors. He also missed Friday’s 28-point win over San Antonio.
We have more from the Southwest Division:
- The Pelicans reserves have made a major impact in their three-game winning streak, Rod Walker of the New Orleans Times Picayune writes. “This bench is a team that wants to win every minute that we get,” guard Jose Alvarado said. “We know that it can be 10 minutes, five minutes, two minutes or 20 minutes. We’re going to attack it like it’s the (NBA) Finals.” Alvarado led the bench brigade on Friday with 19 points, including six 3-pointers.
- The Spurs are headed to Paris to face Indiana. They’ll look at the trip as a chance to turn their fortunes around. They have lost three straight and six of their last seven after falling to Miami on Sunday. “This hasn’t been our best stretch of basketball and there are some things we need to shore up, and we’ve played some really good teams and they’ve exposed some things,” acting coach Mitch Johnson told Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express News. “We’re looking forward to Paris, but I don’t think we overlooked this team or in (losing twice to) Memphis.”
- The Mavericks list Dereck Lively as questionable to play against Charlotte on Monday due to a right ankle sprain, Grant Afseth tweets. Lively has missed the last two games after suffering the injury two games ago against Denver.