The Grizzlies today won the power-to-head showdown with a 116-110 victory over the Bulls. The Grizzlies are currently third in the West with a record of 42 wins and 20 losses, and the Bulls are second in the East with a 39-22 record.
In today's game, Morant played 36 minutes, shooting 15 of 28, including 3 of 4 three-pointers and 13 of 15 free throws, with 46 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists, 46 points not only set a new career high for Morant, but also created a record for the Grizzlies. So far in the regular season, Morant has scored 40+ in five single games, and the other Grizzlies have only one in total.
In the third quarter, Morant shot 6-of-7 in a single quarter, including 1-of-1 from three-point range and 7-of-8 free throws from the free throw line, and scored 20 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists. By the end of the third quarter, Morant had cut 36 points, four rebounds and three assists to give the Grizzlies a 93-79 lead over the Bulls.
Morant's personal performance this season has been quite outstanding, even compared to Rose, who won the MVP in the same period, Rose became the youngest regular season MVP in the third year of his career, averaging 25.0 points, 4.1 rebounds and 7.7 assists per game, shooting 44% from the field, while Morant averaged 27.1 points, 5.9 rebounds and 6.7 assists per game this season, shooting 49% from the field.
With the Grizzlies finishing third in the West and only two wins away from the second-place Warriors, if Morant leads the Grizzlies to a better record, he is entirely likely to get MVP and become the second youngest MVP after Rose.
Because Morant's performance was too strong, the brave DeRozan of the past period of time was also compared. DeRozan played 41 minutes today, shooting 10-of-29, including 2-of-2 three-pointers and 9-of-10 from the free throw line, scoring 31 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals.
In the first half, DeRozan was not in good shape, and the crazy iron only scored 7 points, but in the second half, DeRozan scored 24 points. In the final 15 seconds of the game, the Bulls trailed by 3 points, deRozan made a mistake in the key offense, was expelled from the game because of complaining to the referee, and the Bulls lost the game.
Since he didn't get 35+ today and his shooting percentage was far less than 50%, DeRozan's record of 35+ in 8 consecutive games with a 50% shooting rate came to an end, and he had no chance to match Jordan's record of 35+ in 10 consecutive games. However, DeRozan's consecutive record of 30+ continues, coming to game 10, ranking second in Bulls history, and is expected to break Jordan's record of 30+ in 11 consecutive games.
LaVine also performed well, playing 38 minutes, shooting 9-of-19, three-pointers, 3-of-3 shooting, and 28 points, 4 rebounds and 7 assists.