Ja Morant remains intractable. The American point guard added this Friday his second victory in two games played with the Grizzlies, giving his team the eighth victory of the season against the Indiana Pacers (116-103), after serving a 25-game suspension for his incidents with firearms in social networks.
After the two-time All-Star scored the winning basket for Tennessee against the New Orleans Pelicans this Thursday, Morant did not want to lower the bar on his return to Memphis. The 24-year-old basketball player had 20 points, eight assists and five rebounds under the FedExForum hardwood.
“It was good, I loved it. Obviously this is my family, so I loved being able to play in front of them again and I was definitely thrilled to get a win,” Morant said after the game about his fans.
However, Desmond Bane surpassed the South Carolina player in numbers this Friday with 31 points, seven assists and six rebounds, being the top scorer for Taylor Jenkins’ team. Jaren Jackson Jr. also contributed to the local victory (21 points and 7 rebounds), as well as Santi Aldama.
The Spanish power forward added 13 figures, two assists and three rebounds to his personal account, in the 25 minutes he was on the court. In addition, the forward had the best /- differential of the duel with 24. These two consecutive wins suggest that Memphis could reverse their short-term losing dynamic and leave the bottom of the table.
The Tennessee team is currently second to last in the Western Conference and had slipped five times in a row, with the exception of the last two games. Their current record is 8-19 and they are only behind the Portland Trail Blazers and the Wembanyama Spurs in the standings.
The loss of the Lakers, without LeBron James, against the Timberwolves was also one of the highlights of the night (118-111). Darvin Ham’s men have chained their fourth consecutive KO in the league against the Western leaders, on a streak, after accumulating 12 victories in the last 14 matches played.
Wolves guard Anthony Edwards added 27 points, five assists and seven rebounds. For their part, Karl-Anthony Towns and Mike Conley Jr. buried the Atlanta team with 21 and 16 points, respectively. In the case of the Lakers, Anthony Davis did not lose face in the match, signing 31 figures, but it was insufficient for the Angelenos, tenth in the West (15-14).
Even worse are the Detroit Pistons in the East, who after losing this morning against a Utah Jazz full of casualties, have accumulated a balance of 2 wins and 26 losses. On the horizon is the possibility of Monty Williams’ team becoming the worst team in history. The negative record of consecutive losses belongs to the Sixers, who added 28 consecutive losses between the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons.
