Play.
Morant flies in for the clutch.
With less than a minute to go, Ja Morant drives to the hole and drops in a layup and foul to extend the lead. (0:33)
1:04 AM
Ja Morant made a left-handed layup with 28.9 seconds remaining to give Memphis a three-possession game and seal the team's 10th consecutive victory.
A young fan raised his hand in hopes of getting a high-five after Morant landed. Instead, Morant stared down the boy and barked a few words, expressing his displeasure that the kid dared to wear a Warriors jersey to FedExForum on Tuesday night.
Morant said that he was disrespectful with the jersey on. We are in Memphis. It looked like he wanted to cheer, but he had his jersey on. I apologize to him, but in that moment, take that jersey off and suck me up. Somebody finds his information. I'll send him one of his own.
Over the past year, respect has been a point of discussion for Morant. He didn't think the Memphis were given their due last season, when they finished 38-34 and won a pair of play-in games to make the playoffs.
Morant said after his 29-point, eight-assist performance in this win over the Warriors that he was sure they had it. I bet you have it now.
The NBA's elite teams have been forced into conversations about the Memphis Grizzlies, who have dominated for a stretch of more than six weeks. Memphis has won 20 of 24 games, a run that started when Morant suffered a knee injury that kept him out of 12 games, to improve to 29-14, putting the Grizzles percentage points behind the Utah Jazz for third place in the Western Conference.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr said that the team had turned into one of the best in the league.
The Warriors defeated Memphis in San Francisco. The longest active winning streak in the league is the 10-game run by the Memphis Grizzlies. The Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets have both been beaten by the Grizzlies during the streak.
"We're one of the best teams in the league, and we're the youngest team to do that in NBA history," said Morant, who is the youngest player to average at least 25 points per game in a double-digit winning streak in NBA history. I think that's the number one. We're showing how deep our roster is. We bounce back from whatever happens and win games. We have to keep it going, continue to play and battle.
The Warriors were down by as many as 18 points in the first half. Golden State took the lead in the third quarter after being sparked by Gary Payton II's energy. In the final minutes, Memphis got 3s on back-to-back possessions by backup point guard Tyus Jones to push the cushion to nine points and kill any Warriors comeback hopes.
Stephen Curry, who had a 27 point triple-double but only scored two points in the fourth quarter, said that the Warriors were fueled by everything Ja does. They got us last year in the play-in game and got us twice this year, so it's a natural evolution of a team trying to take that next step.
You have to show it in the playoffs, that's the big part. We want to try to do that. I know they would like to. Nobody is trying to win the conversation right now.
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