For the Memphis Grizzlies to have a chance in their series against the Warriors, it was pretty clear that Ja Morant was going to have to carry his team. He just did that in more ways than one on Tuesday night.
The Grizzlies evened their second-round series against Golden State behind 47 points from Morant. The third-year guard scored the final 15 points for Memphis in just over four minutes of game action — he dominated. But NBA fans seemingly took notice with how Morant was getting to the basket with ease:
He was getting away with some blatant carries.
With Memphis up by one with 30 seconds remaining, Morant went one-on-one against Andrew Wiggins and finished off the contested floater. But from the replay, it was awfully clear that a turnover should have been called on Morant. A carry doesn’t get any more obvious than this:
Ja Morant carries the ball on pretty much every possession…and it never gets called. This is pretty excessive too. pic.twitter.com/ho5JBPsh2l
— Guru (@DrGuru_) May 4, 2022
It wasn’t just on that play. A similar violation went uncalled in Game 1. He also carried when he dropped Jordan Poole.
that's big-time defense by Curry on Morant pic.twitter.com/LPfg7jW0Rc
— Matt Petersen (@TheMattPetersen) May 1, 2022
NBA rules map it out clearly:
A player who is dribbling may not put any part of his hand under the ball and (1) carry it from one point to another or (2) bring it to a pause and then continue to dribble again.
That’s exactly what Morant was doing there, and though you rarely see NBA officials call carry violations, it’s getting increasingly difficult to ignore as Morant does it in key spots. We’ll have to see if the Last Two Minute Report mentions the missed no-call.
NBA fans certainly took notice.