Ja Morant Stats Tonight: How did Grizzlies star perform in his return from injury against Blazers? (Nov. 25)
Ja Morant returned to the Memphis Grizzlies lineup on Monday night against the Portland Trail Blazers. Morant missed the previous eight games with a hip injury suffered on Nov. 6 against the LA Lakers. How did the Grizzlies superstar perform in his return from injury versus Portland?
Morant finished the game with a double-double with 22 points, two rebounds and 11 assists. He did his damage in the first half, wherein he scored 20 points. He let his teammates take over in the second half as the Grizzlies blew out the Blazers out of the building 123-98.
Santi Aldama had 13 points and 17 rebounds off the bench, while Jaren Jackson Jr. added 21 points, six rebounds and three blocks. Deni Avdija had 17 points for the Blazers, with Shaedon Sharpe scoring 15 points and blocking two shots.
Here are Ja Morant's stats for the game:
How did Ja Morant perform against the Portland Trail Blazers?
Ja Morant was back in the starting lineup with Desmond Bane, Jaylen Wells, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Brandon Clark. Morant began the game by assisting Bane for the first three points of the contest. He scored his first two points at the 10:52 mark with a trademark layup plus the and-one.
The two-time All-Star finished the first quarter with eight points as the Grizzlies built a 10-point lead after 12 minutes. Morant was even better in the second period, scoring 12 more points to keep Portland at bay. He had 20 points, two rebounds and six assists at halftime.
Morant shot 6-for-11 from the field, including 2-for-3 from beyond the arc. He was aggressive and went to the free throw line eight times, sinking six. He had zero turnovers and had a plus-minus of +16. Memphis was up 65-54 heading into the third quarter.
In the third quarter, Ja Morant was pretty quiet and let his teammates do the work. The Memphis Grizzlies increased their lead to 19 points at the end of the period. Morant only had two points and two assists, but the rest of the team picked up the slack to continue their domination of the Portland Trail Blazers.
Morant went scoreless in the final quarter since the Grizzlies were by a wide margin. He only played a total of 23 minutes, which is ideal since he just returned from a hip injury. He was likely on a minutes restriction, so it worked out for Memphis.
The Grizzlies won their third straight game to improve to 11-7 for the season. They are currently sitting sixth in the Western Conference standings, with their next three games still being at home. The Blazers, on the other hand, dropped to 7-11, which is not the worst record in the West.