Grizzlies star guard Ja Morant exited the team’s Thursday Game 3 matchup with the Thunder due to a hip injury and was ruled out, the team announced (via Twitter).
Morant took a hard fall toward the end of the second quarter after he was fouled by Oklahoma City’s Luguentz Dort, Tim MacMahon of ESPN writes. The play was not called for a flagrant foul.
The star guard exited the game after playing 16 minutes and scoring 15 points and five assists to help the Grizzlies take a big lead in Game 3. After being injured, Morant went to the free throw line and shot both attempts before heading back to the locker room with the injury. Memphis led by 29 points when he exited.
The Grizzlies were down 0-2 in the series after making the playoffs out of the play-in, and obviously missing Morant for any length of time would be a blow to any hope of upsetting the team with the best record in the NBA. With Morant out for the game, Luke Kennard took on a slightly larger role in Game 3.
It’s unclear how much, if any, time Morant will need to miss due to the injury after Thursday’s game. The two teams square off for Game 4 on Saturday.
How is Dort still on the court? Intentions or not, extremely dangerous action. Pip jr gets a flagrant kneeing Hartenstein while doing a layup and Dort can do this? It’s not like okc are in danger of losing the series but that completely changed game 3.
Dort was still on the court because luckily he wasn’t injured when he slipped while trying to make a play on the ball.
Like I said, intentions and what came of this action are two different things, no? I don’t believe he meant it, doesn’t matter.