- The bone bruise in his right knee that might sideline Grizzlies guard Ja Morant for the rest of the playoffs isn’t related to an injury he suffered toward the end of the regular season, tweets Chris Herrington of The Daily Memphian. “Everything I hear is non-surgical,” coach Taylor Jenkins told reporters, including Geoff Calkins of The Daily Memphian, in regard to treatment options for Morant (Twitter link). When asked why he accused Warriors guard Jordan Poole of causing the injury in Game 3, Jenkins responded, “That is what our medical team and Ja said. … I was stating what was in-house.” (Twitter link from Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN)
- The Grizzlies‘ playoff run could end tonight, but their young roster gives them a very bright future, observes Michael Pina of Sports Illustrated. With Morant only 22 and no players older than 28, Memphis has a chance to be among the NBA’s best for many years to come. Desmond Bane looked back about a decade to find a team in a similar situation. “That Oklahoma City team when (Kevin Durant), James Harden and (Russell Westbrook), all those guys were young and fairly new,” Bane said. “Other than that, I don’t know too many other teams that were young and seen as title contenders.”
Nuggets center Nikola Jokic has won his second straight Most Valuable Player Award, topping the Sixers‘ Joel Embiid and the Bucks‘ Giannis Antetokounmpo by a comfortable margin, the NBA announced in a press release.
Jokic received 65 first-place votes and 875 total points, putting him well ahead of Embiid, who finished second with 26 first-place votes and 706 points. Antetokounmpo came in third with nine first-place votes and 595 points.
Nobody else received a first-place vote, but Suns guard Devin Booker was fourth with 216 points and Mavericks guard Luka Doncic was fifth at 146 points. With 100 total voters, the balloting system awarded 10 points for a first-place vote, seven points for second, five points for third, three points for fourth and one point for fifth.
Other players receiving votes were the Celtics‘ Jayson Tatum (43 points), the Grizzlies‘ Ja Morant (10), the Warriors‘ Stephen Curry (4), the Suns‘ Chris Paul (2), the Bulls‘ DeMar DeRozan (1), the Lakers‘ LeBron James (1) and the Nets‘ Kevin Durant (1).
Jokic is the 13th player to win MVP honors in back-to-back seasons. He averaged 27.1 points, 13.8 rebounds and 7.9 assists in 74 games and helped the Nuggets earn the sixth seed in the West despite the absence of Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. Jokic was named Western Conference Player of the Month twice this season and reached the All-Star Game for the fourth straight year.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski first reported on Monday that Jokic would win the award.
All-Star Grizzlies point guard Ja Morant has suffered a bone bruise in his right knee and is considered “doubtful” to play for the rest of the NBA playoffs, the team announced in a press release. Memphis anticipates that Morant will fully recover from the injury during the 2022 offseason.
How long the playoffs are going to last for Memphis had already been an open question after a Morant-less version of the team fell to the Warriors in Game 4 of the Western Conference Semifinals on Monday night. Golden State currently leads Memphis 3-1.
With Morant now sidelined, the Warriors seem primed to make their first Conference Finals since 2019. Granted, the Stephen Curry-led Warriors have memorably surrendered a 3-1 series edge once before, but the odds of that happening without the opposing team’s best player seem slim.
Morant had by far been the Grizzlies’ top scorer in the series, averaging 38.3 PPG on 50.6% field goal shooting, plus 8.3 APG and 6.7 RPG in his three healthy games.
This had been a special season for Morant. In addition to making his first All-Star team, the 6’3″ third-year point guard was recently honored as the 2021/22 Most Improved Player after guiding Memphis to a 56-26 record and the No. 2 seed in the West. Across 57 healthy regular season games for Memphis, Morant averaged 27.4 PPG, 6.7 APG and 5.7 RPG, with shooting splits of .493/.344/.761.
The former Murray State guard left during the final quarter of Game 3 (another Warriors win) due to what at the time was deemed to be right knee soreness. Additional imaging conducted by the Grizzlies later revealed the bone bruise.
Game 5 in the series will be played in Memphis on Wednesday, presumably with backup point guard Tyus Jones continuing to start for Morant.
Grizzlies forward Dillon Brooks expressed remorse for injuring Warriors guard Gary Payton II during Game 2 of their teams’ Western Conference series, Damichael Cole of the Memphis Commercial Appeal writes. Brooks spoke publicly for the first time since he was assessed Flagrant Foul 2 for his takedown of Payton, who suffered a fractured elbow.
“I didn’t mean for to hurt somebody,” Brooks said. “If I were to take it back in that moment, I would.”
Brooks served a one-game suspension but will return to action for Game 4 on Monday. Payton is out for the remainder of the series and is expected to need at least three weeks to recover.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr and several of his players felt Brooks’ hack was a dirty play. Payton tumbled to the court after Brooks fouled him on a layup attempt. Kerr added that Brooks “broke the code” of how the game is played.
Brooks wasn’t sure how to take that.
“I don’t even know what that means,” Brooks said. “It’s the playoffs. Every bucket, every pass, every possession, every play counts.”
The Grizzlies are eager to get Brooks back, especially given Ja Morant‘s injury status.
“DB’s going to be huge for us,” Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins said. “We always talk about him being a tone-setter for us
Ja Morant will miss Game 4 of the Grizzlies’ series against the Warriors on Monday, coach Taylor Jenkins told ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk (Twitter link) and other media members during his pregame press conference.
Morant was expected to sit out. He suffered a knee injury in Game 3 and will continue receiving treatment. He’s considered day-to-day, which opens the door for a possible Game 5 return.
Morant finished Game 3 with a game-high 34 points, seven assists and three steals in 36 minutes. The Warriors’ Jordan Poole tugged on Morant’s right knee as he was swiping for the ball during the fourth quarter.
Tyus Jones will start in Morant’s place, Fred Katz of The Athletic tweets.
The Warriors won’t have their head coach on the sidelines. Steve Kerr has entered the league’s health and safety protocols, Anthony Slater of The Athletic tweets. Associate head coach Mike Brown, who was officially named the Kings’ head coach on Monday but remains on Golden State’s bench through the playoffs, will serve as acting coach.
Kerr had been wearing a mask in recent days and his voice was hoarse during press conferences, Slater adds in another tweet.
- The Warriors–Grizzlies series appears to be losing some steam, Chris Herrington of The Daily Memphian writes. Herrington opines that this matchup was supposed to be the fun playoff series, but injuries, suspensions and hard fouls have derailed its momentum. As we outlined earlier, Grizzlies star Ja Morant is likely to miss Monday’s Game 4 due to a knee injury.
Grizzlies star Ja Morant will likely miss Game 4 against the Warriors on Monday, head coach Taylor Jenkins said, according to Anthony Slater of The Athletic (Twitter link). Morant suffered a knee injury in Game 3 and will continue receiving treatment.
Morant finished with a game-high 34 points, seven assists and three steals in the contest, shooting 13-of-21 from the floor in 36 minutes. He appeared to injure himself on a play involving Warriors guard Jordan Poole, who grabbed Morant’s knee as he was swiping for the ball.
“It looks like Jordan Poole grabbed (Morant’s) knee and pulled it,” Jenkins said postgame, per Chris Herrington of The Daily Memphian (via Twitter).
It’s unclear if Poole will face any discipline for the play. The Grizzlies played without Dillon Brooks (suspension) in Game 3, as Brooks committed a hard foul on Gary Payton II in the previous game. If the Grizzlies lose on Monday, they’ll go home with a chance to force a Game 6 at Golden State.
Memphis went 20-5 without Morant this season. It has the backcourt depth to remain competitive, and De’Anthony Melton or Tyus Jones will likely start at point guard if Morant can’t play.
When Grizzlies wing Dillon Brooks committed a hard foul on Warriors guard Gary Payton II, in an eventual 106-101 Game 2 Memphis win, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr had harsh words for the play. “There’s a code that players follow,” Kerr said at the time. “Dillion Brooks broke the code.” Payton fractured his elbow and is set to miss three-to-five weeks of postseason play with the injury. Brooks was subsequently suspended for one game.
Now that the shoe is potentially on the other foot, Alex Kennedy of Basketball News wonders if the code was broken once again in Game 3, a 142-112 Warriors win. Warriors guard Jordan Poole grabbed Grizzlies All-Star point guard Ja Morant‘s right knee on a play, and Morant subsequently left the contest with an apparent injury. Morant initially tweeted a video of the Poole foul, while quoting Kerr’s “broke the code” comment. Morant has since wiped that post.
“I don’t have a take,” Kerr said of the interaction, per Mark Medina of NBA.com (via Twitter). “There’s nothing to comment on.”
There’s more out of the Southwest Division:
- Grizzlies center Steven Adams deserves to return to the Memphis starting lineup, opines Damichael Cole of the Memphis Commercial Appeal. Though the more athletic and switchable Xavier Tillman has supplanted Adams at center for the Grizzlies’ last six contests, Cole believes the rebounding of Adams will be key for Memphis against the smaller Warriors. The burly big man is also excellent at the kinds of little plays that may not show up in box scores, such as devastating screen-setting.
- The Pelicans have a variety of intriguing roster-building decisions to make during their offseason. Will Guillory of The Athletic discusses a handful of issues for New Orleans this summer, including potential extensions for new additions CJ McCollum and Larry Nance Jr., the team’s future at point guard, the fate of Jaxson Hayes, and more. The first part of Guillory’s series on the Pelicans’ offseason was previously linked here.
- Mavericks All-Star guard Luka Doncic has flexed plenty of playoff muscle this postseason, leading Dallas to its first second-round appearance in 11 years. Cydney Henderson of USA Today writes that Doncic proved his mettle in his winning both a EuroLeague title and EuroLeague MVP in 2018, prior to arriving stateside in the NBA draft. He has been training his whole life for this moment. Henderson notes that Doncic has been playing basketball since he was seven months old. His father Sasa Doncic was a pro in various European leagues. “I played basketball because (my dad) played basketball,” Doncic said. “I was always with him on the court. Always at the games just shooting basketballs.”
Before the controversy over Ja Morant‘s injured knee that dominated the postgame talk after Saturday’s Grizzlies–Warriors game, there was already a strong focus on his matchup with Jordan Poole, writes Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic. After three days of hearing questions about his defense following Morant’s 47-point explosion in Game 2, Poole responded by taking the ball at Morant repeatedly Saturday night.
Both players were selected in the 2019 draft, but while Morant was the second pick and his path to stardom was quick, Poole was taken at No. 28 and had to live with an early label of being a bust before proving that he can play. He welcomes the opportunity to measure himself against Morant, Thompson writes, and he responded to a challenge laid down by his veteran teammates to keep competing no matter how many times he’s targeted on defense.
“It’s going to keep happening,” Stephen Curry said. “Whether it’s me, him, whoever. That’s the nature of the playoffs. But you just have to take that challenge seriously. You have to have some pride around it, knowing that they are trying to put you in the actions for a reason. That doesn’t mean you’re going to get a stop every time. It just means you did your job.”
There’s more on the Warriors:
- The team’s most important offseason addition has turned out to be Otto Porter, who signed a veteran’s minimum contract last summer, according to Tim Kawakami of The Athletic. Porter’s numbers — 13 points, four rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots — didn’t stand out on Saturday, but he was plus-30 in 24 minutes of action and ranks second on the team at plus-76 in the playoffs. According to Kawakami, Golden State tried to sign Patty Mills and Nicolas Batum to a mid-level deal last summer, but turned to Porter when Mills and Batum chose other teams.
- Rookie forward Jonathan Kuminga was the newest member of the starting lineup Saturday night, notes Anthony Slater of The Athletic. Coach Steve Kerr wants to keep Poole in a reserve role and there are spacing issues when Kevon Looney plays alongside Draymond Green, so Kerr opted for Kuminga, who scored 18 points and matched up well when he was switched onto Morant.
- Andrew Wiggins set a personal playoff record with 15 points in the first half Saturday, adding another dimension to the Warriors’ potent offense, per Kendra Andrews of ESPN. “That’s what we’ve been asking Wiggs to do all year … put your head down and get to the hole,” Green said. “It’s very hard to stop him from getting to the basket. It’s bigger than just dunks. The way he’s been rebounding and the physicality that he’s been playing with and boxing out … he’s been doing an incredible job no matter who he gets matched up on.”
Grizzlies star Ja Morant limped out of the arena after injuring his right knee late in tonight’s game, tweets Jared Greenberg of TNT. Doctors examined Morant following the game, but the results haven’t been announced.
The injury appeared to happen on a play where Warriors guard Jordan Poole was swiping at the ball and grabbed Morant’s knee instead. Morant didn’t talk to reporters, but he sent out a tweet with a video link to the play and the message “broke the code,” a reference to what Golden State coach Steve Kerr said about Dillon Brooks after his flagrant foul injured Gary Payton II in Game 2. That tweet was later removed.
In his postgame press conference, Memphis coach Taylor Jenkins said “it looks like Jordan Poole grabbed (Morant’s) knee and pulled it” (Twitter link from Chris Herrington of The Daily Memphian). Jenkins added that he will consult with general manager Zach Kleiman before determining whether to ask the league to review the play (Twitter link).
Morant’s teammates came to his defense after the game. Desmond Bane referred to the play as a “controllable” situation and said that Poole “reached out and grabbed his knee and put (it in an awkward position). It’s unfortunate.” (Twitter link from Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN). Jaren Jackson Jr. added, “It’s unfortunate to see that type of stuff. But no one here is dirty. It’s unfortunate. You know the code. We’re going to talk about the code all series at this point.” (Twitter link from Marc J. Spears of Andscape).
Poole denied any wrongdoing, saying he was making “a basketball play” (video link from Mark Medina of USA Today). “I’m not even that kind of player,” Poole said. “I respect everybody. I hope he gets better.”