All-Star Moment of the Night: Ja Morant's game-winner leads Grizzlies past Suns

Kyle Irving

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All-Star Moment of the Night: Ja Morant's game-winner leads Grizzlies past Suns image

NBA All-Star voting season is upon us!

With NBA All-Star voting tipping off on Christmas Day, fans now have the opportunity to select the players they believe should start in the 2022 NBA All-Star Game set to be held in Cleveland, Ohio. When potential All-Stars deliver vote-worthy performances, we'll be sure to bring that to your attention with our "NBA All-Star Moment of the Night" series to highlight those deserving players.

You can vote for your 2022 NBA All-Stars here, or find several other ways to vote here.

Tonight's NBA All-Star Moment of the Night was as easy of a decision as they come.

Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant – who has never been an All-Star but is building quite the campaign so far this season – added another All-Star-worthy moment to his resume.

Taking on the first-place Phoenix Suns on the road, the Grizzles nearly let one of their best wins of the season slip away when they saw a seven-point lead with two minutes remaining slip away.

Leading by two points with under 10 seconds to play, Suns star Devin Booker caught the inbound pass wide open at the top of the 3-point line, burying what would seem to be the game-winning 3-pointer to seal a comeback win for Phoenix.

With only five seconds remaining, Memphis only had one chance to prevent the blown lead and Morant made the most of it. Putting the ball in the hands of their superstar, Morant drove the lane as four Suns players collapsed around him. The commotion didn't rattle the cold-blooded guard as Morant hung in the air with defenders draped all around him, banking in a layup to beat the buzzer and win the game for the Grizzlies.

This capped off a 21-point second half for Morant, who finished with 33 points, four rebounds and four assists on the night.

I mean, talk about the degree of difficulty – this image below was taken of Morant's game-winning shot.

Ja-Morant-Game-Winner

All-Stars make big-time plays, as we saw from Booker on the other end of the floor on the possession before. Morant, who is a top candidate to make his first-ever All-Star appearance this season, responded back with an even bigger play than his two-time All-Star counterpart.

This continues what has been a breakout campaign for the third-year guard, who is averaging career-highs across the board with 23.7 points, 6.8 assists and 5.5 rebounds per game. He has the Grizzlies playing well beyond anyone's preseason expectations, moving on to 21-14 on the season with the win, good for sole possession of fourth place in the Western Conference.

As you may know, team success can be just as important as individual success when it comes to separating yourself from other All-Star candidates, and Morant is looking pretty deserving in both of those departments.

You can vote Ja Morant into the 2022 NBA All-Star Game here.

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Kyle Irving

Kyle Irving Photo

You read that wrong – not Kyrie Irving. From Boston, graduated from the University of New Hampshire. Sixth season as a content producer for NBA.com's Global editions. Covering the NBA Draft has become his annual "dream come true" moment on the job. Irving has a soft spot for pass-first point guards, with Rajon Rondo and Steve Nash being two of his favorite players of all time.