The Memphis Grizzlies are 3-0 since Ja Morant made his season debut.
It began with a dramatic, 115-113 comeback victory in New Orleans, and Morant and the Grizzlies visit the Pelicans again seven days later Tuesday night.
Memphis was 6-19 and had lost five games in a row before Morant returned.
“There’s definitely more spirit when you win games,” Memphis guard Desmond Bane said. “It is just natural. We’re definitely feeling good about where we’re at.”
Morant, who returned from a 25-game suspension to score 34 points, including a game-winning basket at the buzzer in his debut, had 30 points and 11 assists in a 125-119 victory at Atlanta on Saturday night.
When he was asked to give a grade from one to 10 for the start to his season, Morant said, “a 10.”
“We won,” he continued. “That’s what we play for.”
Bane added 37 points for Memphis, which had not won three games in a row during Morant’s absence. Jaren Jackson Jr. scored 20 points, making 8 of 10 field-goal attempts, as the Grizzlies established a season-first by shooting better than 50 percent for a third consecutive game.
“I know what type of team we can have and what type of noise we can make in this league,” Morant said. “We didn’t start how we wanted to, but we’re where we need to be. We’re hungry and people are doubting us. That’s when we are at our best.”
The Pelicans, who lost a 24-point lead in the game against the Grizzlies a week ago, had another fourth-quarter collapse in a 106-104 loss to the visiting Houston Rockets on Saturday.
Their biggest lead against the Rockets was just seven points, but poor execution during the final three minutes cost them just as it did against Memphis. The Grizzlies outscored them 39-26 in the fourth quarter and Houston outscored them 27-20 in the fourth.
New Orleans, which missed nine of its 29 free-throw attempts, took a 100-97 lead against the Rockets on a layup by Zion Williamson with 3:54 left. But then the Pelicans had three turnovers as Houston took control with a 7-0 run.
“They’re a tougher team than we are right now,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said of the Rockets.
Williamson, who scored a team-high 28 points but was the primary culprit in New Orleans’ free-throw woes by missing 5 of 10, had two of the turnovers.
“It’s not hard (to explain what went wrong),” Williamson said. “Turnovers. We’ve got to execute and we can’t have those turnovers and we had three late in the game. It is going to be hard to win like that.”
Trey Murphy III, who had nine of his 14 points in the fourth quarter to keep Houston at bay until the late collapse, also cited the turnovers. For the game the Pelicans got outscored 23-5 on points off turnovers.
“We turned the ball over down the stretch, and that’s what led to our loss,” Murphy said. “It just didn’t look like we were on the same page on a lot of different stuff.”
– Field Level Media
