Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies lost 120-103 to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night, extending their losing streak to four games. In Memphis' first game without All-Star forward Jaren Jackson Jr. since his latest injury, the scoring load was most expected from Morant, who came into the game questionable to play due to a right deltoid contusion.
Morant has battled injuries/illnesses all season, playing just 38 out of the Grizzlies' 62 games. Just this season, Morant has had injuries to his thigh, hip, knee, back, AC joint, foot, and shoulder while also dealing with an illness in January (via FOX Sports).
While Morant has been consistently landing on the injury report, the Grizzlies made a much more encouraging decision on Thursday.
Removing Morant from injury report entirely for Friday's matchup against the Dallas Mavericks, the Grizzlies will have their star point guard available. While Morant was uncertain whether his shoulder injury would linger for the rest of the season (via Damichael Cole of the Memphis Commercial Appeal), it appears he's ready to play against Dallas.
No Ja Morant on the injury report https://t.co/bWaSMIm9da
— Damichael Cole (@DamichaelC) March 6, 2025
The former No. 2 pick in the draft out of Murray State is averaging 20.9 points and 7.4 assists per game on 43.1% shooting this season. While the Grizzlies continue to slip in the standings and battle injuries, Morant will need to return to his All-Star form in order to help his team make a late push to maintain home-court advantage in the playoffs.
Memphis currently sits 0.5 games ahead of the Houston Rockets for the fourth seed in the Western Conference standings with 20 games remaining in the regular season.
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This story was originally published March 7, 2025 at 12:43 PM.