Beijing time on January 4, today the Nets at home ushered in the challenge of the Grizzlies, both teams in the forefront of the east and west, originally thought to be a pin-point game against McMang, but under the leadership of Morant, the Grizzlies maintained a leading position, the end of the third quarter the point difference reached 23 points, the embarrassing Nets can only in the last quarter with the bench lineup to recover some points, and finally the Grizzlies away 118-104 light Nets to win 5 consecutive wins, the Nets suffered the first 3 consecutive losses of the season.
Durant had 26 points and 6 assists on 8-of-24 shooting, Harden had 19 points and 8 assists on 5-of-14 shooting, while Morant shot 14-of-22, including 2-of-4 three-pointers, and finally had 36 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists, with plus or minus of +24.
Morant has now scored 30+ in four consecutive games, making him the first player in Grizzlies history to do so. Among them, he had 33 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists against the Suns and hit a shootout, 41 points and 10 rebounds against the Lakers, 30 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists against the Spurs, and 36 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists against the Nets today. And morant shot 57.6 percent from the field and 73.6 percent from three-point range (14-of-19) in those four games.
The reason for Morant's big outbreak is because of the fans, during Morant's previous absence due to injury, the Grizzlies got an excellent record of 10 wins and 2 losses, and in the first game of his comeback, the Grizzlies lost to the Thunder, who had won by 73 points, so the fans shouted to let him go. Morant couldn't stand the defection of the fans who had supported him, so he led the team to become more and more courageous, personally attacking and organizing the whole team to fall.
After today's game, Durant also praised Morant's performance, Durant said: "He has controlled the game, he has become a very good scorer, always full of passion and joy on the pitch, you see him blooming in front of our eyes. ”
Basketball writer Bill Simmons socially praised Morant as a very similar to Rose in the 2010-11 season, and no one in the league can play like him at the moment. To be sure, Morant will lock in an All-Star position this season, and this is only the third season of his career.
On the other hand, the Nets ostensibly lost to rebounding, but the whole team played without tactics, a large number of singles by stars, so that role players lacked a sense of participation, attack and defense were not active to play without vitality, after the defeat of this battle, the Nets' winless record against the top four teams in the East and West was further expanded.