After a Ja Morant injury, the Memphis Grizzlies blew a 27-point lead in Game 3 vs OKC Thunder
The Memphis Grizzlies led by as many as 29 points in Thursday’s 114-108 loss against the Oklahoma City Thunder. In this episode, host Damichael Cole recaps the game, Ja Morant’s status and the fourth quarter struggles of two stars.
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#MemphisGrizzlies #JaMorant #Grizzlies #NBA
43 Comments
Even though I preferred tanking Mavs game for 14th pick, as I and most people who watched this season knew this exact outcome of 0-4 sweep, I am glad this 3rd game happened and demystified to many ardent fans who are in denial about the state of the franchise and think small tweaks will fix things
– This game was microcosm of the whole season. Things looked up for once and unfortunately, Ja got injured and unable to contribute . Des and Jaren couldn’t even help protect the 26 point lead. Nothing surprising there knowing those 2 are not what fans believe they are. They are support players who have been overestimated and put in leadership positions in a small market. True value shows up in trade market
– This franchise is at crossroads with an absent owner and wrong FO are in charge. Doesn’t inspire hope
– FO has a big F on every pick they have drafted incl . 30th pick (Des , Santi) as none have proven as working out, reliable and helping team in big moments . 7 first round draft picks wasted since ZW and nothing to show for it.
– Jenkins was not a good development coach. Every damn player has skill flaws, bad habits, and is mentally weak. So rest that myth
– (Most controversial) Ja is not dependable. Injury was unfortunate but he can never be relied on to stay fit with his style of play and accidental injuries will remain a constant for him. For all the thrill we get from his play, he will always be injury prone.
– OKC big 3 are true big 3 for their talent ; grizzlies big 3 are because FO gave them most money and they are just not championship level players
– Time for reboot and trade for whatever assets and players can be had. Don’t think Des has any value in trade market. (See Kuzma / Middleton trade)
– 14th pick would have been important in a loaded draft when you are having to reboot and seriously need new talent as current group is just bad with little talent.. late 1st round picks and 2nd rd picks rarely become world beaters.. Grizzlies FO had everyone fooled and thought it could operate differently than 29 other teams and build a contender Moneyball style.
As soon as Ja got hurt i knew that we were going to lose this game…
Sweep this team is trash 🗑
Drose woulda been perfect to have last night
As soon as Ja went back to the locker room you could just tell the energy and leadership was gone, it quite literally killed the vibe of all the Grizzlies on the court, I watched it happen with my own eyes man. Karma is real and it will come for this OKC team for what they did tonight
Don't falling into Ja was some bs. He was falling so why would he grab on to someone who is airborne
This remind me of when Kawhi was on the Spurs. The Spurs was meeting the Warriors in a Game 1 playoffs by a lot then Zaza injures Kawhi (this lead to all Kawhi injury issues). Spurs lost the game and the series
I still remember them talking dynasty to the Warriors
Gotta trade bane
WOW….we scored 30 points in the 2nd half!!!!!!!!!!!! Exciting future we have………..JA$$$$$$$$$$JJ$$$$$$$$$$$BANE$$$$$$$$$$$
I knew we should have lost to Dallas Now we lost a lottery pick and probably lost the team.
Desmond Bane has been exposed. He can’t be a max player with the Grizzlies. He needs to go and the Grizzlies need to spread that money out to other players.
There’s no way the Grizzlies should’ve lost this game. Even without JA, Bane and JJJ should have been able to finish the job with such a big 27-point lead. How bad are the Grizzlies really if they can’t win a game like THIS without JA?
I was hurt, but my 1yo just went 2 in the adult toilet 🤯 Only saying this to say. This isn't the all is lost moment. Luckily it's a much needed wake up season for the front office and it showed us who embodies Memphis culture and who doesn't
Team went in to panic-mode early in the 3rd and spent the rest of the game launching 30’ shots 🤦♂️
Just play gg and Vince
Can it get any worse than this next season? How many injured playoff runs in a row now?
D.BANE straight garbage!!!🤬🤬🤬🤬
fck lu dort. he seemingly always injuring people and they did what they needed to do to take ja out the game to give themselves a shot. just total bs, still no excuse for something like this to happen but man..
Desmond bane is overpaid that’s for sure. Turnover machine and goes missing in the clutch.
Bane was 3-14 stop shooting drive the ball. Luke scared to shoot. Konchar and Vince can't shoot. Jaren got punked by Caruso. Both big men keep putting the ball on the floor. Got bane and Santi bringing the ball up with Pippen on the bench.
I'm officially tired of this team. I'm tired of Ja getting hurt. I'm tired of the team always collapsing. I'm tired of expectations for every season ending in a total crash. Other than the final decision on the coach, I might not pay attention to anything Grizzlies until after all-star game next year unless they're having some miraculous season. It's time to decide who is a real big game baller and who is not, then blow this thing up. We should have start tanking the minute we dropped out of the top half of the seeding. It was obvious this team was going nowhere a month ago
Trade bane bruh it’s time
Morant is good but he is not that good to miss 2nd half and team blow a 27 point lead. I agree with others in this thread. The STAR player's on this team are over paid. Nothing wrong with paying huge contract to STARS but Yes Jackson and Bane are good but they are not THAT good. As for Morant he misses how many games in regular season and now this playoff game. My point is how can you build a team around an injury prone player?
The loss last night showed me how bad this Grizzlies team is. This team is weak mentally to have a lead that big and Ja gets hurt and nobody steps up to lead. OKC has dominated and humiliated the Grizzlies for 12 straight games and they just laid down and allowed them to come back. This team has to make some serious moves during the offseason.
Bane aint it man
Very disappointing! I like Bane but he pretty much shot us out of the game, shooting alot of 3s and missing and alot were not even open. Bane should have drove in more. Team made alot of mistakes in second half, not really OKC doing anything different but more just bad decisions by Grizzlies players.
Grizzlies gave this game away!
Im a thunder fan, we knew your team would give the Thunder a run for the win. The grizzlies disoriented our team for the first few quarters. Yes, you lost Ja….watching his fall hurt me as well….i still can't believe he attempted to dunk over Dort (Dort had that slip…probably would have fallen in Ja had not attempted that Dunk, it actually seemed to stabilized Dort back to his feet but ended up hurting himself. Still that move was not a smart move, it was too far to dunk over someone. It still hurt to watch his injury.).
The Grizzlies could have won, but if you have watched the OKC thunder games, you know they are good at comebacks. They will try on the last quarter to catch up, its like they get a rush of adrenaline, they get hyped. I think that threw the Grizzlies off their focus. It was a good game, the Grizzlies gave our team a hard run for that win. Good game. Also, hope Ja recovers.
Hold on Damichael my Red Sox came back from 0-3 against those trash Yankees 😂😂
Well… Lots of things came to light last night. Ja is pretty important to keep the offense rolling and Pippen is almost at that point(so that's a good thing). Although Ja needs to beef up and add some weight on him to handle the workload. He hasn't been so dramatic with dunks or whatever this year like in the past and he has STILL gotten hurt from when he has taken the contact.
Jaren needs to work on court vision when he's in the post or going to the basket. It's glaring that he has trouble with his passing game to find guys open on the wing or dumping it to Edey on the block. His ball handling was kind of sloppy towards the end. When chemistry is established, you should know where guys might be cutting to and get those easier shots. Plus, let's get him to average around 8 rebounds a game next year.
Bane is what he is at this point. Unless he can improve his handles and figure a way to create shots efficiently, he moves better off the ball and short burst of dribble penetration. His defense is fine for a guy his size and ability.
Our bench depth is wiped out. Konchar is great but not a 'take the final shot' guy, plus he shouldn't have even been in the lineup that late if you had more depth. Kennard again not being aggressive with the shot. Good with the ball handling, but he had shots driving to the paint that he passed up for someone else to shoot a bad 3 pt shot. Should you resign him? Santi is almost in Dillion Brooks territory with his shot selection. Started hot but came to earth later on. RFA right? Should Grizz match an offer that another team might give him? And they didn't even take a chance at using Vince while having that 20+ point lead? To see if he could possibly keep up?
Tuomas is showing with his coaching style that he is begging for some veteran presence to come off the bench at this point. I think that he should be the coach next year because who in the world are you gonna flatter and pay big bucks to come to Memphis? Malone or Bud would be the only ones worth considering if you did. Anyways, he's done fine with what who he has available. The front office should be put on notice by Robert Pera. Yes, the players make the plays and shots, but we've put trust in guys that weren't ready to take it on. Now with the rising payroll with Ja, Bane, and Jaren soon, it will be challenging to bring those vets in to add depth. Marcus Smart could've helped sure, but that one guy can't defend 5 guys at once. And you had that just a few years back with Dillon Brooks that for some reason you couldn't get under control with his ego. We all hate on him sure, but he brought an edge that no one right now is creating on defense.
It’s a team sport and y’all lost one player. Get a better team period.
Ja stays hurt and neither him nor Jaren or Bane are max deal players. Time to blow the whole thing up, we ain't winning nothing with this team
Sure good to see Bane step up
damn Damn DAMN!! 🤦🏽♂️
When i was im the arena it felt like whole energy shifted when ja got hurt only person to approach dort was trip
Luke kennard was terrible because he did absolutely nothing. You could tell he didn't care to be out there. No defense and didn't care to score. Why not put VW in to at least slow down OKC offense
I didnt think i could be more disgusted with a loss than that 51 pointer but somehow, this one feels even worse because you got a 30pt lead and your 2 highest paid players STILL couldn't get it done after you star got hurt. Went out sad
As emotionally attached I am to the big 3 one of them gotta go for KD
Why doesn’t Pippen lay it up?!
Thunder fan here. I knew y'all would come out swinging in this game. And I also thought we were cooked before halftime. Even after Ja left the game, I still felt that OKC had zero chance of coming all the way back. So yes, the Grizz should feel deflated and have so much soul searching to do in the offseason.
Ja Morant retain nothing from lesson learned. His game is to dangerous for him as he always hurt.
Earlier on the season he says that he will change his game play with less dunk to preserve his heath ect …
But he doesn't apply what he said.
Same thing with his questionable provocation regarding his recent celebration mimic guns follow by punishment by the league regarding that.
This man have a geeat talent but his hurting by himself regarding his attitude and less of maturity..
I regret to say that but maybe Memphis fans deserve to have a more mature and Caliber player than Ja who doesn't retain anything from his past lesson learned.
Trade bane to OKC! Might go 80-2 with bro nem
🧹🧹🧹 on to next season