Earlier in the Grizzlies home game against the Lakers, the team in the case of a 14-point trail, relying on Morant in the final quarter to score 11 points, helped the team set off a wave of 26-16 climax, and finally won 104-99, ushered in a wave of 3 consecutive wins in the recent past, and Morant stood on the free throw line in the last quarter, and the Grizzlies home fans also responded to him with the MVP shouts, to some extent, it can also be regarded as recognition of his excellent performance in these games. In this campaign, Morant started 35 minutes and slashed 41 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks on 13-of-27 shooting, which can be said to be the biggest contributor to the Grizzlies' ability to win.
This 40+ performance is also the third time in Morant's career that he has scored 40+ in a single game, successfully surpassing Mike Miller and Paul Gasol twice, becoming the first person in Grizzlies history. As a third-year student, Morant only used 154 games to make himself comparable to these two Grizzlies, and it has to be said that the management chose to clean up the old minister Conley in order to cultivate him, and now it seems that it is indeed a right bet. As a team with relatively low NBA qualifications, the Grizzlies only officially joined the NBA in 1995, originally in Vancouver, Canada, but in 2001 the team chose to relocate to Memphis, Tennessee, USA, and stayed in this small city for 21 years.
During this period, the Grizzlies have also welcomed well-known stars such as Raheem and Gasol, but the real peak of their team history has to count the "black and white double bears" era, the twin towers of Little Gaga and Randolph, coupled with Conley's planning in the backfield, the Grizzlies successfully ushered in the first "black eight miracle" in team history in the 10-11 season, and the Spurs who were sitting on GDP at the time were cut under the horse, and in the 12-13 season, they were successively defeating the Clippers and Thunder, and the team history advanced to the Western Conference stage for the first time. But after all, a small ball market like the Grizzlies, in the case of not being able to compete for the championship, can only regret the disintegration, as the black and white bears have left, the old minister Conley also turned to the Utah Plateau later. Jamorant, the eye-catching show ushered in 19 years, has also become the "new bear king" that the team focuses on cultivating.
Morant, whose draft template is regarded as Westbrook, averaged 17.8 points, 3.9 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game in his rookie season, successfully winning the best rookie award, and last season he led the Grizzlies to beat the Warriors in the playoffs, pressed the whistle into the playoff stage for 5 years, and in his debut season in the playoffs, he handed over a huge star stat of 30.2 points, 4.8 rebounds and 8.2 assists. After this playoff baptism, Morant has also played more mature this season, raising his stats to 24.5 points, 5.7 rebounds, 6.6 assists, 1.5 steals, and the criticized three-point shooting rate has also increased to a career-best 38.3%.
Although Morant missed many games for the Grizzlies due to a calf injury, with role players such as Dillon, Bain and Anderson, the Grizzlies have also made great strides, and it is true that in the first two games after Morant's return, the team unfortunately lost, but in the last 3 games, Morant has also helped the team find the winning formula, bursting out a wave of three consecutive wins, as strong as the Suns, the top team in the West, has been cut off by them, and we really should not have the same contemptuous attitude towards the Grizzlies before.
Now with only 154 games, he has made himself the first person in the history of the team to cut the most 40+, and Morant, the "new Bear King", has indeed given Grizzlies fans unlimited hope. It can be seen that the management's original vision of people is really speechless!