The thing is about this, yesterday in the regular season, the Grizzlies won 118-105 at home to the Spurs, the first half of the game the two teams also played difficult to score, the third quarter of the Grizzlies suddenly powered, a single quarter hit the Spurs a wave of 27-18, after the point difference opened, the Grizzlies never let the Spurs catch up, and finally successfully defeated the opponent, to achieve four consecutive wins.
In this game, Morant performed well again, he scored 20 points in the first half, the key third quarter, Morant handed over 8 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists in a single quarter, all over the field, Morant shot a total of 12 of 18 shots, 3 of 3 three points, 3 of 3, 30 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists, his plus-minus value reached +15, the second highest on the team.
In the past three games, Morant's performance can be said to be quite hot:
Against the Spurs, he was 12-of-18, 3-of-3 from three-point range, 30 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists
Against the Lakers, 13 of 27, 6 of 7 three-pointers, 41 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals
Against the Suns, 14-of-25, 3-of-5 three-pointers, 33 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals
In three games, he averaged 34.7 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.3 steals per game, shooting 55.7% from the field, shooting 12-of-15 from three-point range, shooting 80.0% from the field, and shooting 66.4% from the field.
In the game against the Suns, Morant also sent a highly difficult kill, when Booker hit a key three-pointer to help the Suns lead the Grizzlies 113-112, at this time there were only 5.0 seconds left, Morant held the ball, facing Paul, Bridges, Booker's multi-person pinch to force a breakthrough, and then completed the kill with a difficult stagnant layup.
Then facing the Lakers, Morant scored a personal high of 41 points this season, thus becoming the first player in the history of the Grizzlies to be able to score 40+ multiple times in a single season, and earlier in the season, also in the game against the Lakers, Morant had cut 40 points, 10 assists, 3 rebounds and 3 steals.
Coupled with this 30+ against the Spurs, Morant has won 9 30+ times this season, and he has played a total of 25 games, as a comparison, in the past two seasons, Morant has played a total of 130 games, adding up to 9 times 30+.
So far this season, Morant's performance has also been very impressive.
So far, Morant has averaged 24.7 points, 5.7 rebounds, 6.6 assists and 1.5 steals per game, ranking 12th on the scoring list and 15th on the assists list, and his efficiency is also outstanding, shooting 48.5% from the field, 40.0% from three-point range, 77.4% from the free throw line and 57.4% from the true shooting range.
For comparison, Morant averaged 19.1 points, 4.0 rebounds and 7.4 assists last season, shooting 44.9%/30.3%/72.8% from three fields and shooting 53.7% from the field.
The fact is that Morant showed talent in his rookie season, when he averaged 17.8 points, 3.9 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game, successfully winning the best rookie, but last season, that is, the second-year season, Morant's performance did not improve much, and even a little backward in terms of efficiency (the true shooting rate of the rookie season was 55.6%), which also worried some fans.
This season, Morant has completely broken these doubts, and his ability to attack the box is still outstanding, scoring 14.3 points so far this season, ranking third in the league, and even surpassing Ayton, Thick Brow, Towns, Sabonis Jr. and other interior players.
Morant's shooting has also improved a lot, his three-point shooting has increased from 3.8 last season to 4.4, and his shooting percentage has increased from 30.3% to 40.0%.
Now Morant is undoubtedly an All-Star level.
Speaking of which, this is also a question that has been discussed recently — will Morant be named an All-Star this year? First of all, there is still competition, the Western Conference backcourt is full of talent, Curry, Booker, Paul, Mitchell, Doncic are all All-Star candidates, which does not include Lillard and Westbrook, two potential All-Star regulars who have played average this year.
However, Morant is not bad, excellent data, impressive highlight performance plus a good record, Morant even if he can't get into the starting lineup, he can definitely enter the bench, so as long as there is no accident, soon after the All-Star Game, we will definitely see Morant's figure.