6:34pm: Morant is available to play tonight, the team’s PR department tweets.
1:48pm: Grizzlies point guard Ja Morant has been upgraded to questionable for the team’s game on Monday vs. Oklahoma City (Twitter link).
While that doesn’t mean Morant is a lock to be active tonight, Evan Barnes of The Memphis Commercial Appeal notes (via Twitter) that players listed as questionable by the Grizzlies typically end up playing.
Morant, who exited the health and safety protocols over the weekend, has been on the shelf since November 26 due to a left knee sprain. Before he went down, the 22-year-old was enjoying his best NBA season to date, averaging 24.1 PPG, 6.8 APG, 5.6 RPG, and 1.6 SPG on .476/.356/.777 shooting through 19 games (32.6 MPG).
Oddly, the Grizzlies were just 9-10 with Morant in the lineup and have gone 10-2 without him. However, as Kevin Pelton of ESPN outlined in an Insider-only story, the Grizzlies have benefited from a favorable schedule and poor opponent shooting during their last dozen games — there’s obviously no reason to believe Memphis is a better team without its star guard.
After hosting the Thunder tonight, the Grizzlies have road games on tap in Golden State (Thursday), Sacramento (Sunday), and Phoenix (Monday).
According to NBA TV, Lakers need to be top 4 seed, otherwise they won’t have playoffs success
Can Lakers take down Grizzlies？
IMO
Lakers would look good after trading away Westbrook
Stop saying that… i might agree, but its impossible to trade RW at this point. The Lakers can only hope to reach the 5# Seed.
That was fast. Sounded like Ja might miss a lot more time.
Grizz have always been a little better than perception but now that perception is landing the 4 seed this year
Can they Do it? I think they will
Oh boy, Ja comes back & MEM loses to OKC… SMH!!!