Mt. Tenno, the Grizzlies take it.
In the first round of G5, the Grizzlies defeated the Timberwolves 111-109 at home, this game the Timberwolves almost led the third quarter and a half, until the fourth quarter over half also led by 99-88 11 points, in the final half of the quarter, the Grizzlies played a wave of 23-10, successfully completed the reversal, after winning the victory, the big score of 3-2 lead.
In this game, Morant handed over the best personal performance in the playoffs this year, he only rested for 3 minutes, shooting 9 of 22, 4 of 3-pointers, 11 of 17 from the free throw line, 30 points, 13 rebounds, 9 assists and 3 steals, the highest score, assists, steals in the whole unit, plus or minus +6 on the field.
Morant played not well in the first three quarters, scoring only 1 point, 5 points and 6 points in the third quarter, but in the crucial fourth quarter, Morant scored 18 points alone, and 18 points in a single quarter set a new scoring record for the final quarter of the Grizzlies' history in the playoffs, and it was under his leadership that the Grizzlies played 37-24 in the final quarter and won in a reversal.
In the final four minutes, Morant scored the last 13 points for the Grizzlies:
— With 4 minutes left, Morant threw a free throw and the Grizzlies made it 100-101 Timberwolves
— With 1 minute and 41 seconds left, Morant hit two free throws and the Grizzlies 104-106 Timberwolves
— With 1 minute and 03 seconds left, Morant key three-pointer, Grizzlies 107-106 Timberwolves
— With 8.2 seconds left, Morant hit two free throws and the Grizzlies 109-106 Timberwolves
The last two rounds of the game were arguably particularly exciting:
— With 3.7 seconds left, Edwards received a McLaughlin pass and met Clarke's defense, hitting a three-point shot that brought the Timberwolves to 109-109
— With 1.0 seconds left, Morant received the ball, threw himself past Edwards, faced Vanderbilt's defense, changed hands in the air and pulled the basket to kill, and the Grizzlies won 111-109 against the Timberwolves
It is worth mentioning that in addition to scoring a key kill, Morant also sent a shocking dunk before the end of the third quarter, when Morant held the ball outside the three-point line, one step past McDaniels, facing the penalty area waiting for the foul Ofique Bisley, Morant did not hesitate, directly jumped up is a riding dunk - this ball, basically can lock the best dunk in this year's playoffs.
Interestingly, morant in the post-match interview also talked about the dunk, and his response was very expressive: "I'm not excited about it, because it's a very easy thing to dunk a defender. That's probably what Versailles means.
Back to this series, as of now, Morant can average 22.4 points, 8.8 rebounds, 10.4 assists and 1.6 steals in five games, ranking 12th in the league in rebounds and second in the league in assists, which seems very good, but Morant's personal offense is actually not good.
He shot only 40.2 percent from the field, 26.7 percent from three-point range, 70.4 percent from the free throw line, and 50.6 percent from the field, including G3, 5 of 18 for Morant, and 3 of 14 for G4.
For comparison, in the regular season, Morant averaged 27.4 points per game, shooting 49.3%/34.4%/76.1% and shooting 57.5% from the field.
Under the high-pressure defense of the playoffs, Morant's attack box score and attack box efficiency have declined a lot, during the regular season, his interior score is as high as 16.6 points, the league is the first, the inside shooting rate has reached 55.6%, but so far in the playoffs this year, these two numbers are only 12.4 points, 44.3%, respectively, plus Morant is not a good shot, so it is natural for him to struggle on the offensive end.
However, superstars are superstars, as far as this game is concerned, Morant in the first three quarters like sleepwalking, the fourth quarter resolutely continues to attack the frame, his attack frame finally paid off - Morant in the fourth quarter of 18 points from the free throws, it is the feel found at the free throw line that has the key three points and kills later.
At this point, it must be said that the penalty for this game, to be honest, may be because of the home game, the Grizzlies are actually dominant in terms of penalty, especially in the fourth quarter, Morant has several times stood on the free throw line are controversial, so you can also hear some "penalty rand" voices today.
However, the result can not be changed, this round of the series is not over, despite winning the King Mountain, the Grizzlies still can not take the enemy lightly - the Timberwolves in terms of strength is definitely not too much to lose the Grizzlies too much, who can qualify, there is still a lot of suspense.