Ja Morant thrilling to observe, however harm pricey to Grizzlies playoffs

Probably the most problematic factor concerning the collision Sunday that despatched Ja Morant’s proper hand bent backwards into the ground was how completely predictable an harm of that normal selection was for one of many NBA’s most electrical gamers.

In Morant’s 4 seasons with the Memphis Grizzlies, now we have seen a numerous variety of performs the place the 6-foot-2, 174-pound level guard hundreds up the springs in his legs and launches right into a high-flying transfer that skirts the boundary between thrilling and terrifying.

More often than not, it’s high-quality. However the way in which Morant assaults when he’s close to the rim — so rapidly and violently and excessive off the bottom with seemingly no regard for what may occur as soon as he’s up there — you recognize that typically it’s not going to be high-quality.

Sport 1 of the Western Convention playoffs towards the Los Angeles Lakers was a type of events the place his airborne vulnerability grew to become pricey. Although the extent of Morant’s harm after colliding with Anthony Davis within the fourth quarter has not been made public, his postgame feedback instructed an look in Sport 2 is unlikely and that the outlook for the remainder of this collection isn’t nice.

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Maybe Morant will likely be high-quality after a number of days and the Grizzlies, down 1-0 within the collection, may have a possibility to get well and advance. But when the hand is in as unhealthy a form because it appeared Sunday, it’s more and more doubtless this will likely be Memphis’ second straight playoff run that ends with Morant unavailable or severely compromised.

And that begs the query: Is the reckless abandon that delights followers and makes for nice Sportscenter highlights an precise obstacle to the Grizzlies finally successful a championship?

There’s no option to reply with certainty.

Two years isn’t a long-term development, and when Morant harm his knee in Sport 3 towards the Golden State Warriors final season, it wasn’t after a high-powered takeoff however quite a traditional basketball play that occurred to end in a fluke harm.

Even with this example, the narrative across the NBA centered totally on whether or not the block-charge guidelines ought to be altered because the contact resulted from Davis sliding into Morant’s path proper earlier than he jumped towards the rim — just like a play later Sunday that resulted in Giannis Antetokounmpo falling on his again and being unable to return to Sport 1 of the Milwaukee Bucks’ collection towards the Miami Warmth.

These are all fascinating dialogue factors, and there may be actually advantage to eager about the dangers concerned in these performs and whether or not there are methods to make them safer.

However with Morant particularly, harm potential has been a subject since he arrived within the league. There are many NBA gamers with comparable, lithe physique varieties. There aren’t many who don’t issue their relative lack of bodily sturdiness into the sorts of challenges they tackle.

That particular high quality, although, is a large a part of what makes Morant who he’s.

You anticipate to see an Antetokounmpo throw his physique round as a result of he’s an enormous bodily specimen and has prevented main accidents all through his profession.

Morant, nonetheless, missed a major chunk of the 2021-22 common season even earlier than what occurred within the playoffs and now faces the prospect of watching his group lose one other collection the place he can’t contribute the way in which a star participant is meant to.

The load of that was apparent in what reporters in Memphis described as a morose environment round Morant after the sport, the place he acknowledged that he actually could not do something along with his proper hand as a result of the ache was so unhealthy.

“Feels prefer it’s one factor after one other,” he mentioned, in response to ESPN’s Tim McMahon.

This has been a tough season for Morant in a number of methods, largely centered round his off-court points.

He was suspended eight video games by the NBA after he posted a video on Instagram Stay from a strip membership in Denver waving a gun. He’s being sued after an incident throughout a pickup recreation at his residence, the place an adolescent alleges that he was overwhelmed up after stepping into an argument with Morant, who filed a counter-suit final week. There have been a number of incidents of alleged threatening habits by Morant and his mates, together with by Indiana Pacers staffers after a recreation and shoe retailer staff at an area mall. And although Morant denied that he has an alcohol downside, his penchant for going out and partying was reportedly sufficient of a difficulty that the group had a gathering about it earlier than his suspension.

Maybe that was a wake-up name for Morant, and he’ll mature right into a extra reliable chief as he enters his prime years. But when Sunday was the final time we see him on the court docket this season, he could face one other reckoning this summer time about his type of play.

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