Jonas Valanciunas sinks game-winning free throw, scores career-high 33 points in Grizzlies win over Rockets

Kyle Irving

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Jonas Valanciunas sinks game-winning free throw, scores career-high 33 points in Grizzlies win over Rockets image

Jonas Valanciunas continues to compete at a high level in Memphis.

Tonight, the Grizzlies needed his heroics to take down one of the NBA's best teams in the Houston Rockets.

Valanciunas went for a career-high 33 points in the 126-125 win, but that wasn't the highlight of his night.

With the game tied a 125 with 15 seconds on the clock in overtime, the Grizzlies drew up a play for point guard Mike Conley to try and win the game – Conley also had a hot hand tonight, finishing with a team-high 35 points.

Memphis' captain attacked the rim but couldn't get the floater to go and Valanciunas was right there to clean up the mess.

The former Raptors' centre corralled the offensive rebound and was fouled on the putback, sending him to the line with 0.1 seconds on the clock.

Valanciunas calmly stepped to the free throw line and knocked the first attempt to win the game for the Grizzlies.


The free throw spoiled yet another ridiculous game from All-Star guard James Harden, who stuffed the stat sheet with 57 points, eight assists, seven rebounds, two steals and two blocks.


Valanciunas dominated Rockets' big man Clint Capela, grabbing 15 rebounds, including nine (!) on the offensive glass to go with his career-high in scoring.

That career-high came on an efficient 10-for-19 shooting from the field and a solid 13-for-17 from the charity stripe.

The Lithuanian big man has been fantastic for Memphis since being traded just before the deadline. He's averaging what would be a career-high 19.1 points per game on 57.6 percent shooting from the field.

He has scored in double figures in all but two of the 13 games he has played for the Grizzlies, recording double-doubles in six of those contests.

He is also grabbing a team-high 8.5 rebounds to go with 2.0 assists and 1.2 blocks per game.

It turns out Memphis may have found their frontcourt of the future, pairing Valanciunas with their young star forward Jaren Jackson Jr.

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.