The Internet Seems Rather Upset With Ja Morant's End Of Game Celebration After Beating The Pelicans In An OT Thriller
Derick Hingle. Getty Images.How great has the return of Ja Morant been for the Memphis Grizzlies? Well that all depends on where you'd like to start. There's the fact that Ja has hit the ground running, putting up a pretty decent 28.8/5.3/8.3/1/1 on over 50% shooting. Just so you know, that would be career highs in points, FG%, assists, blocks and minutes per game (36) if he were to maintain this level for the rest of his season.
With that production, we also already saw a Ja game winner, something that took us a total of one (1) game to see
Then you move to what his return has meant for the team. I'm not a huge math guy, but never losing seems pretty good. I've run the numbers, plugged everything into my TI-86, and as it turns out it is hard to do better than 4-0 in 4 games played. The Grizzlies 4 game streak is the 2nd longest current winning streak in the NBA (Nuggets have won 5), and while they do have a ways to go to get back into the Play In conversation (4.5 games back of the 10th seeded Warriors), part of that climb is going to be making sure they beat the teams in front fo them.
Last night, that tewam was the New Orleans Pelicans. The current 7th seed in the West and a team that was 7 games ahead of the Grizzlies before the game took place. What happened? Well Ja had 31/4/7
Marcus Smart returned to the lineup as well and immediately put this team on his back down the stretch, making huge defensive plays and timely buckets on the other end, just like he has his entire career
That is a man who thrives in chaos, and few things were more chaotic than how this game ended. Games like this are why you should be watching the NBA every single night. This was the first H2H meeting between the two, and the Grizzlies snagging this win on the road could absolutely matter come the Spring.
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You may have noticed a certain celebration there at the end of OT via Ja Morant. A beautiful alley oop from Smart to Morant for the final nail in the coffin
Uh oh.
Should anyone give a single shit about this? Nope. It's a Ja Morant doing a celebration dance after capping off a huge dunk. Will people care and make this some sort of talking point? Sadly, absolutely. You can't be suspended (twice) for what Ja was suspended for, do something like that in your 4th game back, and then not expect people to take it and run with it
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Look, did Ja Morant display what anyone would suggest was "good decision making" in his actions that led to his suspension? No. Especially the second time. That was bad. But that doesn't mean that every single thing the guy does now has to be put under a microscope or turned into this whole big thing. The way I see it, Ja was in New Orleans after a big road win and we didn't see any IG videos of him in a strip club with his gun out. I call that progress.
Also, I'm pretty sure nobody gave a shit when George Pickens did practically the same dance….checks notes….two days ago
It was pretty clear that Ja was trolling the Pelicans/their fans/all of New Orleans by busting out the LSU/New Orleans dance/celebration
Remember, the Pelicans did pass on Morant too in favor of taking Zion. After pulling out a win like the Grizzlies did, that's a pretty great way to cap it off if you think about it. We would celebrate pretty much any other star player who did something like that.
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But the second I saw Morant do that celebration dance last night, I knew takes like this would be coming. Instead of spending time talking about how the Grizzlies are 4-0 and what Ja is doing for them on the court, stuff like this is the focus. It's just kind of lame to me. Who gives a shit what someone does in a celebration, especially when they do something we already see all the time all over sports.
In fact, the only positive thing to come out of this entire ordeal is weirdly Gilbert Arenas. How about that for a sentence? He without a doubt had the best response
Now that's funny.