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Ja Morant just showed the entire NBA world that he is approaching – if not already boasting — superstar status in the 2022 NBA Playoffs. He led the Memphis Grizzlies to a 106-101 victory in Game 2 over the Golden State Warriors in the most dominant and show-stopping way.
In a game the Grizzlies needed badly, Morant had himself the performance of a lifetime. He matched his career high in the playoffs with 47 points against one of the tougher defensive teams in the league. The first-time All-Star shined brighter than he ever has.
Morant's point total and overall stat line are impressive on their faces. But digging deeper shows that the Grizzlies star had not just a great performance but an iconic one. This performance will be a jewel on the crown of Morant's career.
3 insane facts from Ja Morant's masterpiece in Grizzlies' win vs. Warriors
3. The final stat line
Morant finished the game with 47 points, eight rebounds, eight assists and three steals while committing just two turnovers and two fouls. He shot 15-31 from the field, 5-12 from 3-point territory and 12-13 from the free-throw line. Even before digging into it, this stat line is nothing short of fantastic.
Morant scored as many points as the Warriors' two leading scorers combined. Stephen Curry's 27 points and Jordan Poole's 20 points paled in comparison to what the Grizzlies star did. He found new angles to convert tough layups from time and time again and wasn't afraid to let it fly from deep. His performance was quintessential highlight-reel material:
JA MORANT put on a show in the Grizzlies GM2 win vs the Warriors 🥷
47 Points (18 in 4th)
8 Rebounds
8 Assists
& These Nasty Highlights
pic.twitter.com/tmrF2sypwi— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) May 4, 2022
In the fourth quarter, Morant scored 18 points. Getting poked in the left eye, which made him lose vision in that eye, wasn't enough to slow him down, let alone stop him. While going cyclops mode, he took over in a tight game with his team facing a 2-0 deficit and simply put the Grizzlies on his back. That isn't the only stat that showed Morant owns the clutch gene.
2. Clutch gene on full display
Not only did Morant score 18 points in the final frame for his team, but he was the Grizzlies‘ entire offense for the last four and a half minutes of the game. He scored their last 15 points, becoming the third player in over 20 years to do so in a postseason contest:
After scoring the last 15 points for the @memgrizz in Game 2, Ja Morant is now the 3rd player in the play-by-play era (since 1997-1998) to score his team’s last 15+ points in a Playoff game. pic.twitter.com/zm6OjyKnSy
— NBA.com/Stats (@nbastats) May 4, 2022
One of the other performances was LeBron James' iconic performance against the Detroit Pistons in which he scored 25 straight points down the stretch to lead the Cleveland Cavaliers to victory. The other one, performed by Damian Lillard, occurred in last year's playoffs during his 55-point performance against the Denver Nuggets.
Those 15 points outscored the entire Warriors team down the stretch of Game 2. Morant leads the NBA playoffs in points in clutch situations:
Ja leads this playoffs with 42 points in the clutch.
Shooting 52%. pic.twitter.com/zD8Pb0ppLJ
— StatMuse (@statmuse) May 4, 2022
For a Grizzlies team that doesn't always look great in half-court sets, Morant's scoring in crunch time is monumental.
1. Bron and Bean
Morant's 47-point game helped him make some unbelievable history. Along with his 47-point performance in last year's playoffs against the Utah Jazz, the Grizzlies star became the third player ever to have multiple 45-point games in the NBA playoffs before turning 23 years old.
The other two? LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. All Morant could do was recall the company he is now in when he learned of the feat after the game:
bron & bean 😱🙏🏽 https://t.co/8UCWv2GUU3
— Ja Morant (@JaMorant) May 4, 2022
The Grizzlies now head to the Bay Area knotted at one game apiece. Another Ja Morant masterclass will get them even closer to the Western Conference Finals.
