Morant’s posterizing dunk was epic
There's not much love lost between players in the first-round NBA playoff series between the Memphis Grizzlies and Minnesota Timberwolves, but Desmond Bane actually likes Malik Beasley.
He called him a cool guy.
So Bane felt bad for Beasley when Morant took off about halfway between the free-throw line and restricted area and jumped over the 6-foot-4 guard while emphatically throwing down a poster-worthy dunk.
“Poor guy,” Bane said.
Morant's dunk over Beasley sent social media into a frenzy. Some people were calling it one of the best playoff dunks they have ever seen, while others declared it the dunk of the season.
Morant called the attempt “easy” since Beasley is a guard, but how the dunk happened, when it occurred and what the Grizzlies did afterward is what will elevate into franchise lore.
The Grizzlies trailed by 13 near the end of the third quarter before Morant's dunk sparked a 111-109 Game 5 comeback victorytuesday, giving Memphis a 3-2 series lead.
Now the question is, where does this dunk rank among Morant's best? He is not short on options, and that's why when Jaren Jackson Jr., when asked the question, couldn't rank it.
“It's up there,” Jackson said. “Maybe top three.”
Here are the five best dunk moments in Morant's career:
5. Missed dunks over Kevin Love and Anthony Davis
OK, so neither of these are technically a dunk. But that doesn't matter in this space. Morant has some of the best missed dunks in NBA history. One came against the L.A. Lakers' Anthony Davis, and the most notable was when he rose over the 6-foot-8 Kevin Love and lost the ball as his hand grabbed the rim.
Davis is the bigger name, taller player and better shot-blocker, but a 6-3 guard clearing a man five inches taller than him defies everything that science has taught us.
4. The Baynes banger
One of Morant's first poster dunks in the NBA came when he drove to the basket and dunked over Phoenix's Aron Baynes on Dec. 11, 2019. The dunk came out of nowhere because it looked like Morant didn't have an angle to dunk the ball, but Morant's quickness and lateral agility allowed him to lean left of the basket while simultaneously rising in front of the 6-10 center. By the way, Morant did that while dribbling to his left and shifting the ball to his right hand while dunking.
3. Windmill dunk vs. Wizards
This was all about the sequence. As Morant said, you can't talk about his Jan. 29 windmill dunk without mentioning Bane's chase-down block on defense. Bane hustled back on defense and got the block. The ball found John Konchar's hands. Konchar passed to Jackson, who sent the ball toward Morant for the windmill alley-oop. One of the best parts about this dunk is how Morant's teammates reacted, saying they hadn't seen him do that dunk before. However, in Morant's mind, that wasn't even the dunk he wanted to do. After the game, he said he wanted to go between his legs.
2. Up-and-over the 7-footer Jakob Poeltl
This dunk was about the moment. Morant scored a career-high 52 points against the San Antonio Spurs and had an acrobatic buzzer-beater before halftime that he probably wouldn't make again if he tried 10 times. On this dunk over Jakob Poeltl on Feb. 28, Morant was in transition surrounded by three Spurs players.
That's usually when a player backs it out until more of his teammates join him down the floor, but Morant hit the gas pedal and drove right into the 7-1 Poeltl's chest. Morant took off from outside the paint area to the left of the restricted area. Poeltl is the tallest NBA player Morant has dunked over.
1. ‘Ja Breaker’ over Malik Beasley
This has nothing to do with recency bias, or even the TNT broadcast coining it as the “Ja Breaker.' Morant cleared Beasley just like he did Love, but this time he finished the job at the end of the third quarter. The dunk ignited a quiet Grizzlies crowd at Fedexforum and got Morant going (18 fourth-quarter points) as Memphis erased a 13-point deficit to take Game 5. This dunk was as much about the moment and sequence. It might have saved the Grizzlies' season
Contact Damichael Cole at damichael.cole@commercialappeal.com and on Twitter @damichaelc