Warriors guard Jordan Poole won’t face any discipline from the NBA for a play involving Grizzlies star Ja Morant in Game 3 on Saturday, Anthony Slater of The Athletic tweets.
As we previously relayed, Poole grabbed Morant’s knee as he was swiping for the ball, and the NBA’s Most Improved Player exited the game shortly thereafter with a knee injury.
Morant likely won’t play in Game 4 as a result. Head coach Taylor Jenkins acknowledged the play postgame, but he mentioned he’d have to consult with GM Zach Kleiman before contacting the league.
Aside from the usual playoff trash talk, this isn’t the first questionable play of the series between Golden State and Memphis. Grizzlies guard Dillon Brooks served a one-game suspension after he committed a flagrant 2 foul on Gary Payton II last week.
The Warriors defeated the Grizzlies 142-112 in Game 3 and now hold a 2-1 series lead. In the outing, Poole scored 27 points off the bench, shooting an efficient 11-of-17 from the floor (65%). The two teams will meet again on Monday night.
It was a dumb play, but this is now the 2nd time I’ve seen it insinuated that is how Morant got hurt, and that’s just not accurate. (Feels like an attempt to start a whole online back and forth) Definitely should have been either a technical foul or flagrant 1, but Morant got hurt when he planted trying to stop, right before Poole starts reaching, or potentially on a previous play b/c admittedly I didnt watch the game and only saw the play online last night, and someone said he also banged knees…
I would assume he either has a bone bruise or something of that nature if we havent heard anything about him yet, in which case he may have avoided something worse, b/c the way he came down awkwardly tends to lead to injury, just in my experience of injuring both knees several times
Yup trash reporting Shaw!
For some reason I bet Ja will play on Monday since Jenkins didn’t get the out come he wanted. Other thing is Bane complaining about Warriors when he tried to take out Poole’s knee on a play last night knocking him to the ground. They are acting like its the WWE
Oh I think Ja is hurt, and dont blame him for being a little bitchy with his passive aggressive tweet and delete since he is really hurt.
I just know its the same knee that caused him to miss 9 games at the end of the year that wasnt right in the MIN series, and he has done multiple things that could re aggravate it in the last two games.
Its Jenkins and the other MEM idiots that are to blame here. Bummer for Ja although he could act like an adult…
I blame Jenkins not the player. Ja said what Jenkins told him to say. Ja is what 20 so he might not know better. Jenkins is a full grown adult who shouldn’t make such a claim.
Did not cause inj – I agree
Was a very dumb somewhat dirty swipe from Poole. Not a basketball play but not worthy of a playoff susp
Kerr and GSW fans claiming innocence on everything this series is a bit comical tho.
Per usual, Draymond started this all with the least basketball (dangerous) play of them all. In the 80’s or 90’s Green would have been dealt with immediately and none of this other stuff woulda leaked out onto the open floor/transition areas where speed/power/inj probabilities increase.
Where’s Jerome Kearse and Kevin Duckworth when ya need them ?
Cap & Crunch is all cap man.. so many draymond haters in the casual fan base but what can you expect
Love Draymonds game on the court but nothing I said is incorrect.
If He played 25 years ago he would be paying the clean up crew extra to look for his teeth after the game courtside. He’s lucky he’s in the era he is.
Didn’t watch the game but you know when he got hurt. Ok.
You can see him whence when he plants his leg before the Poole incident.
Posters here playing doctor are funny, diagnosing the knee.
The fact that the press is not dismissing GSW involvement is bc they’re not homers. And for homers, they can see the asterisk coming.
Only Grizzly press is claiming it was intent. Press is also questioning if it happened at the 10:44 mark of the third quarter when you see Morant landing on the knee and limping after. They reported what Jenkins said to cry about Brooks getting suspended.
Who is claiming intent? Please tell me because I haven’t seen it. Sure, maybe he was hurt early in the third but he scored 20 points after that, then had to come out after the play with Poole.
Crazy to think there was intent behind Poole’s play but also crazy to assume it didn’t do anything.
If anyone sincerely believes that Poole did that on purpose, you’re out of your mind
If anyone believes that amount of contact from Poole caused the injury youre out of your mind!
Same ones that are complaining do not want to see how Ja landed hard on his knee jumping at Thompson 10:44 mark in third quarter and was limping after it.
Completely agree looked like he hurt it first at that moment and then it got worse on that play. We need to stop judging things by how they look in slow motion. In real time, Poole was simply going for the ball and missed
Jess, yes I said that yesterday and totally agree. Slow motion everything looks bad but In the Heat of the Moment and the regular pace to the game it’s a swipe where the ball is and a little contact with the knee. Looks worse in slow motion.
Ok, so slow motion only proves what you want to see.
If anyone thinks the grizzles will win, you’re out of your mind!
Unfortunately, a good number of human beings ARE out of their mind, so it’s hardly surprising some could delude themselves into believing this.
Let’s be honest. Just watch the play…..
So here’s the deal: It’s not BS. You can’t watch that video and arrive at any conclusion other than Poole definitely grabbed hold of Morant’s knee and pulled it backward. Was he trying to hurt Morant? I seriously doubt it. My guess is Poole knocked the ball loose, and in an impulsive attempt to restrain Morant from recovering it and given the low position his hands were already in, he grabbed anything he could, which happened to be Morant’s knee, to hold him back.
link to cbssports.com
This guy gets it ………
I think the honesty needs to come from you. Take a step back and assess your bias. It’s showing in every post – in your tone, word choice, conclusions and assumptions.
Also understand that these posts, articles and comments are contributing to an atmosphere of stirring things up instead of turning the page, of extreme gamesmanship and one-upmanship, and vengeance.
Overall the volume needs to be turned down because bad things happen in a media-fueled irrational feeding frenzy, when people are only reacting instead of using their heads.
There is harder contact than that on pretty much every possession in every basketball game ever played.
“Pulled it backward” is horsesh*t and makes you look foolish. “Applied inconsequential pressure” is accurate.
Who are you to say it was an inconsequential pull. Look at Morant’s reaction to it, too quick to be faked.
Probably a WWE fan, where most things are fake, but the fan’s need for violence gets fulfilled.
Intent was shown by the grab itself, not near the ball but at an opponent.
@Toddybaseball
To say he was reaching for the basketball is absurd. At first, yes. But the second reach he did not stretch out to come anywhere near the ball. Instead he stops at the knee, cups his hand to grab at his knee while his left hand pushes him on his hip. So I don’t know the WHY or the INTENT but clearly he grabbed at his knee, because he stopped reaching at that point and cupped his hand, grabbed at it pulling towards him while simultaneously pushing his hip in the opposite direction. Can’t say he meant to hurt him but it’s an awkward thing to do that had nothing to do with an attempt at the ball.
@knicks like when Bane dove at Poole’s knees and the ball was behind him making no attempt to secure the ball but to take out Poole’s legs?
Why would he lol
Just shows how soft the league has become that this article even needed to be written. I’ve seen harder fouls from kindergarten kids.
The article wasn’t written because the author actually cared or believed this may have occurred. It was written because idiots on Twitter were debating it, and so an article was published to get clicks in pursuit of the almighty dollar.
What we know
Poole light foul has nothing to do with the light injury
What we don’t know
1. Did Ja Morant really injure?
2 What knee injury did Morant have?
1. Yes, the Warriors hurt his feelings when they blew MEM out of the building.
2. There were multiple plays where the injury could have happened, the least of which being the Poole play.
Morant is definitely the most exciting player in the league to watch when he is playing at his best. Morant is definitely going to experience a devastating injury to one or both of his knees at some point with the way he jumps out of the building on every play. I don’t want to see it, but it seems inevitable.
Of course he won’t! I already said that, the league needs to pull all the stocks to help GSW win, so no even if he had ripped Ja’s head off he still wouldn’t be suspended, like Dray wasn’t, only Brooks, SMH!
Morant has been playing with a knee injury for a while. That said, the reason he’s getting hurt is his style of play. Slashing guards who demand having the ball at all times are akin to an NFL QB who likes to run the ball. He’ll look good and will be effective at times, but will be an injury waiting to happen.
A rare intelligent post this page, though perhaps due to being a Morant critic.
Poole grabbing a hurt knee IS WHY it’s a dirty play.
And people who say they can tell when he hurt it are noisy fools. Morant is always landing in a way only young men can get away with.
That does not excuse an grab AND YANK in way that caused Morant’s foot to slide across the floor. His foot did slide, and his knees bent unnaturally, if very little. It was as dirty as anything else going on.
You claim fans are homers while you are acting the same way. You are 100% bias. Did you rewatch Morant landing on one knee at the 10:44 mark of the third quarter limping after it?
@ARC
I’m convinced GSW fans see what they want. Yes, Morant may have injured his knee earlier but he was still playing. It wasn’t until after the incident with Poole that he had to leave the game. If Embid was playing with a bruised thumb but then some one intentionally swipes at it and fractured it and Embid leaves the game does that player get excused because the thumb was already hurt?