NEW ORLEANS — With 9.6 seconds remaining in his delayed season debut, Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant fought fatigue after carrying his team back from a 24-point deficit to tie the score against the New Orleans Pelicans. As he used a massage gun on his calves, which he said he felt starting to cramp during the timeout, Morant suggested a playcall: a post-up for power forward Jaren Jackson Jr.
Grizzlies shooting guard Desmond Bane, sensing the moment and having seen Morant take over down the stretch, immediately rejected that plan.
“He told me, ‘F— no, you get the ball,'” Morant said after the Grizzlies’ 115-113 win Tuesday night. “So at that point, I pretty much just had to lock in and go deliver. And I did.”
Morant delivered in dramatic fashion, finishing his 34-point, six-rebound, eight-assist performance with the first game-winning buzzer-beater of his career.
He beat Pelicans defensive stopper Herbert Jones with a spin move in the lane before laying the ball in as time expired at the Smoothie King Center.
Morant silenced the New Orleans fans who booed him early in his return from serving a 25-game suspension for brandishing a firearm on an Instagram Live video in May, his second such incident in a span of two months. His teammates erupted in celebration, as did the hundreds of Grizzlies fans in the arena, including Morant’s father, Tee, and best friend, Davonte Pack, who sat in courtside seats on the baseline steps away from the Memphis bench.
After Morant’s teammates mobbed him while he did the TNT walk-off interview, he bounced as he jogged down the hallway to the visitors locker room.
“I kept receipts, too! I kept receipts, too!” Morant shouted, an apparent reference to the criticism he received during his suspension. He played Meek Mill’s “Respect the Game” at high volume on a speaker by his locker as the media entered the Grizzlies’ joyous locker room.