Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant has made a name for himself early on during his rookie campaign and has become the frontrunner for the Rookie of the Year award as a result.
As the rest of the NBA marvels over his abilities on the floor, former MVP James Harden hasn’t quite jumped on board the bandwagon for the second overall pick.
That was visible on Tuesday night as the Grizzlies hosted Harden and the Houston Rockets. Harden was matched up on Morant throughout the night and made the decision to leave Morant open on more than one occasion.
Morant responded by dropping 26 points and eight assists while he shot 10-of-11 from the field to become the first rookie in NBA history to score at least 25 points and eight assists on 90% shooting from the field.
On one sequence, Morant drilled a wide-open 3-pointer on Harden and ran down to the other end of the floor yelling out a definitely NSFW statement after the play.
Ja Morant had some words after knocking this three down on Harden đź‘€ pic.twitter.com/4WhhajhYFb
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) January 15, 2020
While Morant entered the NBA not known to be the strongest shooter, the rookie is converting on 40.7% (33-of-81) of his attempts from 3-point range. Since the start of the new year, Morant is shooting 44.4% from beyond the arc.
Harden responded by scoring a casual 41 points on 37 shots against the Grizzlies though it wasn’t enough as Memphis picked up their sixth straight win to improve to 19-22 on the season. With Morant on the team, the Grizzlies have become a must-watch team on League Pass as he is good for at least 4-5 highlight-reel plays each night.
Next up for the Grizz: A home matchup vs. the Cleveland Cavaliers.
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