Morant catches fire as Grizzlies drive for postseason

As February turned to March, there was no NBA player hotter than Ja Morant. Or as legendary sportscaster Dan Patrick might put it, he’s “en fuego.” Indeed, in their third year point guard, the Memphis Grizzlies have a budding star who has taken his game to another level as his team jockeys for one of the top playoff seeds in the West. That was never more evident than in the Grizzlies’ Feb. 28 game against the San Antonio Spurs, when the 2020 Rookie of the Year scored a career- and franchise-record 52 points in leading the Grizz to a 118-105 home victory. This came just two nights after he set the previous mark with 46 against the Chicago Bulls. With those efforts, Morant also took ownership of the three highest single-game scoring outputs in team history and five of the top seven. His highlight reel performances have become legendary – gravity-defying dunks, 360 layups in traffic, buzzer beaters from the baseline – but his numbers are equally impressive. The most obvious is his career-high 27.6 points per game (seventh in the league, up from 19.1 in 2020-21) to go with 6.6 assists, 5.9 rebounds and 1.2 steals, all stats that helped him earn his first All-Star appearance as a starter this season. More importantly, he’s the floor leader and go-to guy on a team vying with the Golden State Warriors for the No. 2 playoff seed in the West. Morant and the Grizzlies can be seen in action Wednesday, March 23, when they play host to the struggling Brooklyn Nets in the opening game of an ESPN doubleheader.