{"id":136543,"date":"2025-04-27T17:42:28","date_gmt":"2025-04-27T21:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=136543"},"modified":"2025-04-27T17:42:28","modified_gmt":"2025-04-27T21:42:28","slug":"ja-morant-thunder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/27\/ja-morant-thunder\/","title":{"rendered":"Ja Morant Figured Out the Thunder, But Injuries Got in the Way"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/moranja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ja Morant<\/a> appeared in only 50 regular season games this season for the Memphis Grizzlies. At one point in late February, the Grizzlies were fighting for the second seed with the Houston Rockets. But then injuries got in the way and the team fell down to the play-in. Ja Morant believes that if injuries didn\u2019t get in the way, the team could have had a much more successful season.<\/p>\n<h2>Ja Morant Figured Out the Thunder, But Injuries Got in the Way<\/h2>\n<p>Speaking one day after the Oklahoma City Thunder eliminated the Grizzlies, Morant talked about his confidence in the series against the Thunder. According to Damichael Cole, a Memphis beat reporter, Ja said,<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had them figured out.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Ja Morant paused because he wanted to be careful with his words, but he clearly had more to say when asked about how the OKC series turned out. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had them figured out.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Added that he believes the series would be tied 2-2 headed back to OKC if he didn\u2019t get hurt.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Damichael Cole (@DamichaelC) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DamichaelC\/status\/1916543545726361854?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 27, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>He previously paused, wanting to be careful with his words. But Cole says Morant clearly had more to say when asked how the OKC series turned out. He later added that he believes the series would be tied 2-2 heading back to OKC if he didn\u2019t get hurt.<\/p>\n<p>But it seems like that is the story with Morant in the past few seasons. He just cannot stay healthy for a full season plus the playoffs.<\/p>\n<h3>Ja Morant\u2019s Health<\/h3>\n<p>In the same end-of-season interview, Ja also talked about his health during the season. He said,<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel like every injury I had this year was out of my control. Outside of those injuries, I feel like I had one of my healthiest seasons.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Ja Morant: \u201cI feel like every injury I had this year was out of my control.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cOutside of those injuries, I feel like I had one of my healthiest seasons.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Added that he didn\u2019t have any knee or back pain like recent seasons.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Damichael Cole (@DamichaelC) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DamichaelC\/status\/1916542631389155712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 27, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Ja did try to prioritize health this season. At the beginning of the season, he talked about how he wants to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/11\/26\/ja-morant-dunks\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">avoid dunking<\/a> and highlight plays because they pose a higher risk of injury.<\/p>\n<h3>Can Ja Morant and the Grizzlies Beat the Thunder?<\/h3>\n<p>For what it&#8217;s worth, the Grizzlies had a 26-point lead in Game 3 before Ja went down with an injury. In Game 4, the Grizzlies gave all they had, but they missed Morant in the final quarter. In Game 3, Morant was the only starter with a positive plus-minus at +16. Once he went down with an injury, the game completely changed.<\/p>\n<p>On the flip side, the Thunder have a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.landofbasketball.com\/head_to_head_gl\/grizzlies_vs_thunder_game_log_season.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">nine-game winning streak<\/a> against the Grizzlies, and that doesn\u2019t include the 4-0 <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/26\/2025-nba-playoffs-1-mistake-doomed-grizzlies-thunder-sweep\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">sweep<\/a> in the playoffs this year. The last time the Grizzlies won was in December 2022. Since then, the Thunder have <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/27\/3-thunder-improvements\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">dominated the series<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>What is Next for Ja and Grizzlies?<\/h3>\n<p>The Grizzlies clearly wanted to improve their team this year. Despite being among the top-four seeds at the deadline, they tried to trade for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/butleji01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jimmy Butler<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/johnsca02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cam Johnson<\/a>. They were also in talks with the Nets for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/f\/finnedo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dorian Finney-Smith<\/a> before he got traded to the Lakers.<\/p>\n<p>Morant and the Grizzlies can say that their core of him, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/banede01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Desmond Bane<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jacksja02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jaren Jackson Jr<\/a> is <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/26\/should-grizzlies-trade-ja-morant-offseason\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">good enough to win<\/a>. They just need better complementary pieces. The team finished <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/stats\/teams\/advanced?SeasonType=Regular%20Season&amp;dir=A&amp;sort=OFF_RATING\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sixth in offensive rating<\/a>, and 11th in defensive rating. Usually, teams finishing in the top 10 in both offensive and defensive ratings compete for a championship.<\/p>\n<p>They had a relatively healthy season aside from the injuries to Morant. This year, they also developed two key pieces in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/pippesc02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Scotty Pippen Jr<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wellsja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jaylen Wells<\/a>. The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/26\/predicting-what-happens-with-grizzlies-free-agents\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">offseason<\/a> will be huge for Memphis, as they have to try to re-sign <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/aldamsa01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Santi Aldama<\/a>. Right now, they have $136 million in salary, which puts them under the cap. Depending on what they do with Aldama, they might not have anything more than the tax mid-level to offer to other free agents.<\/p>\n<p>Photo credit: \u00a9 Petre Thomas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ja Morant appeared in only 50 regular season games this season for the Memphis Grizzlies. At one point in late February, the Grizzlies were fighting for the second seed with the Houston Rockets. But then injuries got in the way and the team fell down to the play-in. Ja Morant believes that if injuries didn\u2019t [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5291,"featured_media":136555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,32,62],"tags":[3127,1822,1948],"class_list":["post-136543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-grizzlies","category-nba","tag-desmond-bane","tag-ja-morant","tag-jaren-jackson-jr"],"modified_by":"Kenny Kluska","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5291"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136543"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136556,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136543\/revisions\/136556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}