Ja Morant continues to impress.
The Rookie of the Year frontrunner seems to find his way on the highlight reel every single time he takes the floor. Whether it's a filthy crossover, a vicious dunk, or a clutch play, he's performing well beyond his age and experience in the league.
In the Memphis Grizzlies win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, it was a number of clutch plays by the 20-year-old guard that made its way to Twitter and Instagram timelines all over the world.
Morant took over in crunch time when the Grizzlies needed him most. He scored 10 points to go with four assists in the fourth quarter of a game where his team entered the final frame trailing by two.
His finger prints were all over the win, too. Take a look at the number of clutch plays the rookie came up with down the stretch.
- With the game tied and four minutes on the clock, he dished an assist on a 3-pointer to Dillon Brooks.
- Two possessions later, he knocked down a pull-up jumper to extend their lead to six.
- On the ensuing possession, he hit one of his classic floaters in the lane in rebuttal to a T'Wolves bucket.
- When Robert Covington hit a 3 to make it a three-point game, Morant drove the lane and kicked out to Jaren Jackson Jr. for a wide-open 3-pointer to extend their lead again.
- With under a minute to go up by just one point, Morant danced on the entire Timberwolves defence for a finger roll layup to give the Grizzlies a lead they'd never surrender.
- To solidify the outcome, he came up with the game-sealing steal.
Ja and Jaren took over in crunch time against the Timberwolves 😤 pic.twitter.com/QipLAYYZIL
— Bleacher Report NBA (@BR_NBA) January 8, 2020
Morant finished with 25 points, seven assists, four rebounds and one steal shooting an efficient 12-for-18 from the field. If you haven't checked the NBA standings in a bit, the Grizzlies are now just 0.5 games back from the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference, currently riding a three-game win streak.
This young squad has shown true flashes of potential at times this season and Morant has been the catalyst of it all.
The No. 2 overall pick is averaging 17.8 points, 6.6 assists, 3.2 rebounds and 1.0 steals per game while shooting a solid 48.5% from the field and 39.7% from 3.
He leads all rookies in points per game, assists per game and overall efficiency and is without a doubt the favourite for this season's Rookie of the Year.
The views on this page do not necessarily represent the views of the NBA or its clubs.
