Ja Morant is getting ready to face off against the Grizzlies team that drafted him and that he spent his entire career with prior to this season, as the Trail Blazers travel to Memphis on Thursday for their matchup.
Despite some public disagreements in the past, he’s not coming in with hard feelings, Jason Quick writes for The Athletic (subscriber link). Morant said that he’s “not a big grudge guy” when asked about the reunion.
“Nothing harsh from me for Memphis. At all,” Morant said. “My Memphis time was great, man. That’s tough to, you know, just take out of the picture after a couple months (in Portland),” Morant continued. “I don’t know if nothing can top, you know, my time in Memphis … unless I win a chip (title). And that’s the goal this year.”
Morant also took responsibility for some of the decisions he made while with the Grizzlies, though he added that it “wasn’t all me.”
Grizzlies head coach Tuomas Iisalo spoke on Morant’s return as well in an attempt to clear the air about his relationship with the talented point guard.
“People rely on second-, third-hand information on this and they get blown out of proportion,” Iisalo said, per Michael Wallace of Grizzlies.com (Twitter video link). “I always said we had a great working relationship. We saw a lot of things in a very similar fashion, and just like in any situation, it doesn’t always go like you maybe intended to. I’m just happy both teams and both parties are doing really well right now.”
The Blazers will enter Thursday’s game with a record of 3-0, with Morant averaging 16.3 points and 6.3 assists on .588/.444/.833 shooting splits.
We have more from around the Southwest Division:
- Herbert Jones has seen limited minutes during the Pelicans’ first week of the season, but although he’s averaging just 17.0 minutes per game heading into Wednesday’s games, by far the lowest of his career, New Orleans has not indicated any desire or willingness to trade him, reports Marc Stein of The Stein Line (via Twitter). The team is rumored to have long held an extremely high bar for what they would require in any trade for Jones, and his lack of playing time seems to not have diminished that demand.
- Rockets center Alperen Sengun spoke on Wednesday about the back ailment that he is expected to miss some time as a result of. “I got hurt, but I don’t think about it in the game,” Sengun said, per Houston Chronicle’s Varun Shankar (Twitter link). “Not like I’m saying I got hurt but you know, feeling little pain in the game but I don’t think about it.” Head coach Making Udoka indicated that Sengun could miss multiple games due to the tightness in his back.
- Cooper Flagg has gotten off to an impressive start to his second season for the Mavericksaveraging 25.0 points, 6.3 assists, 5.3 rebounds, and 3.7 steals over three games heading into Wednesday’s matchup against the Thunder. He’s also already eyeing another stage that he could dominate, saying that he would love to play for Team USA in the 2028 Olympics, Grant Afseth writes for Dallas Sports Journal. “Obviously, for me, I’ve played for the country before when I was younger, playing for under-17 teams, stuff like that. So for me, it’s obviously a pleasure to be able to play for my country,” Flagg said. “Any chance I get it, I have no idea what it’s going to look like. It’s a good way down the road. So obviously, if I was ever asked to be able to play for my country, that’s something I would love to do,” Flagg continued. “It would be amazing.”