Tag: Grizzlies

Ja Morant blew a potential game-tying free throw after telling Malik Monk ‘don’t miss’ with the game on the line

Ja Morant should’ve taken his own advice against the Kings

Trash talk is great, man. It’s so much fun. It all comes with being part of sports.

But the thing about trash talk is that you have to actually back it up yourself. And, if you don’t? Whew boy. It could lead to some pretty embarrassing moments in front of a lot of people.

Ja Morant knows. He had one of those moments on Tuesday night with the game on the line against the Sacramento Kings.

The Kings were up by 1 point in the game’s waning moments when Malik Monk went to the free-throw line. Morant told him “don’t miss” before he shot the free throws. He didn’t miss a single one.

But the Grizzlies came down on the other end and Ja Morant gets fouled on a 3-point attempt and has a chance to tie the game. What does he do? Exactly what he told Malik Monk not to do.

Sheeeeeesh. That one has to hurt.

You absolutely love to see the competitive spirit from Morant here. But, uh, you’ve got to make your free throws, man. Everyone roasted him for this.

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6 way-too-early trends from Week 1 in the NBA, including Chris Paul’s awful shooting slump and the Nets’ historically bad defense

Let’s take stock of the early action in the NBA so far with these 6 trends

The NBA season is underway and, well, let’s just say there are a ton of developments that have been surprising so far.

The Nets don’t really look good at all. Neither do the Lakers. But the Spurs and the Jazz? They’re world-beaters. And the MVP right now might actually be…Damian Lillard?

Yeah, the season is off to a fantastic start. But, still, it is just starting. The season is a marathon — not a sprint. There are lots of things happening right now that will not be happening in just a few months.

With that being the case, it felt like a great time to pull some patterns and trends out from around the league and explore them to decide what we should (and shouldn’t!) be buying long-term.

Let’s dive in.

Nets vs. Grizzlies summer league: How to watch, start time, TV channel

We look at ‘how to watch’ options for the Brooklyn Nets NBA Summer League game against the Memphis Grizzlies.

The Brooklyn Nets continue their summer league play on Tuesday evening when they face off against the Memphis Grizzlies, and if you’re wondering how you can catch the game, you’ve come to the right place. The Nets look to continue developing their young players talents.

Brooklyn is coming off of a big win against the Philadelphia 76ers and will look to take on the Grizzlies.

The Nets biggest contributor for the team has been guard Cam Thomas and his dominance has shown that he’s greatly improved since his rookie season. Thomas won the NBA Summer League MVP last season and looks to earn the honor again this year. These games have also given David Duke Jr. a platform to showcase his skills, with him averaging 21 points per contest.

Here’s when and where you should tune in to catch the summer matchup:

NBA rumors: Paolo Banchero, Deandre Ayton, Jalen Brunson, Tyus Jones, Vasilije Micic

A flurry of trades at the NBA Draft had ramifications that’ll affect the top free agents on the market, including Deandre Ayton, Jalen Brunson, Tyus Jones, and others.

Below is the latest intel gathered by HoopsHype on what’s next for Ayton, Brunson, Jones, and behind the scenes of how Paolo Banchero learned he’d be the top overall pick.

NBA rumors: Bradley Beal, Bobby Portis, Nicolas Batum, Lakers, Nets

One of the top free agents on the market has made a decision regarding his player option.

Below is the latest intel gathered by HoopsHype on some of the top names on the free agent market, including Bradley Beal, and notable prospects in this year’s draft class like Jake LaRavia.

Aggregate NBA mock draft 7.0: Ousmane Dieng moves into lottery, Jalen Williams top 20; trade talks

The NBA Draft is less than a week away, with more potential big trades on the horizon following the Christian Wood acquisition by the Dallas Mavericks, as noted throughout our new HoopsHype aggregate mock draft.

To get a better projection of where all of the projected top prospects stand currently, we compiled mock drafts from ESPN, The Athletic, Bleacher Report, The Ringer, Sports Illustrated, NBADraft.net, CBS Sports, SB Nation, Yahoo, Basketball News, and USA TODAY’s For The Win.

The most notable risers within the projected lottery selections included Dyson Daniels moving up further within the top 10 picks, Ousmane Dieng becoming a projected lottery pick, and Jalen Williams vaulting into the Top 20 range. Jake LaRavia and Dalen Terry, two of the biggest risers throughout the draft process, have moved into the late first round.

Other risers in the second round include Ryan Rollins, Andrew Nembhard, David Roddy, John Butler, Michael Foster, Gabriele Procida, and Dereon Seabron.

The notable name that fell was MarJon Beauchamp, who now is projected outside the top 20 picks despite receiving a green room invite. Josh Minott and Jean Montero were among those whose stock fell in the second round.

NOTE: These rankings reflect the composite score to get a feel for the overall consensus, not our own opinion. For example, if a player was the first pick on a publication’s mock draft, he received 58 points. If a player was second, he received 57 points and so on. We then tabulated the total number of points for each player’s consensus ranking. 

HoopsHype’s Alberto de Roa contributed research to this report

Klay Thompson took the pettiest shot at Jaren Jackson Jr. after winning the NBA Finals and fans couldn’t get enough of it

Klay Thompson got into his petty bag after winning the championship

When you win the NBA Finals you can absolutely do what you want and say what you want about the rest of the league.

The Warriors took that to heart on Thursday after beating the Celtics in Game 6. Steph Curry — in the middle of the game — pointed to his ring finger and crowned himself a champion. He also pointed out how Kendrick Perkins and everyone else counted the Warriors out. Klay Thompson even busted out a “holy cannoli” for us which, honestly, I didn’t even know how to spell before he said it.

But, man. When the Warriors get into their petty bag? There is absolutely nobody better at it.

Specifically with Thompson, who totally called out Jaren Jackson Jr. for a tweet in the middle of the regular season. Not even from their playoff matchup.

Jackson tweeted the Warriors’ “strength in numbers” catchphrase after the Grizzlies beat the Warriors in March.

Thompson never forgot that. And when they won the title? He went OFF.

“Strength in numbers is alive and well. There was this one player on the Grizzlies who tweeted ‘Strength in numbers’ after they beat us in the regular season, and it pissed me off so much. I can’t wait to retweet that thing. Freakin’ bum. I had to watch that. I’m like, ‘This freakin’ clown.’,”

Just incredibly petty stuff right there. I love it. Jaren Jackson Jr. probably woke up that morning saying “now why am I involved in this?” He has his tweet to thank for it.

Fans everywhere enjoyed this sort of pettiness from Thompson. It was really remarkable.

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Aggregate NBA mock draft 6.0: Dyson Daniels moves into top 10; Christian Wood trade rumors

Following the withdrawals of several prospects, the aggregate NBA mock draft has shifted noticeably, and more intel on teams have surfaced with the draft nearing.

To get a better projection of where all of the projected top prospects stand currently, we compiled mock drafts from ESPN, The Athletic, Bleacher Report, The Ringer, Sports Illustrated, NBADraft.net, CBS Sports, SB Nation, Yahoo, Basketball News, and USA TODAY’s For The Win.

The most notable risers within the projected lottery selections included Keegan Murray leaping Shaedon Sharpe into the top five range, Dyson Daniels entering the top 10, and Malaki Branham cracking the end of the lottery. Dalen Terry also vaulted 12 spots since our last aggregate mock draft and is currently positioned as an early second-round pick.

Some of the more notable names that fell slightly included TyTy Washington, Max Christie and Leonard Miller.

NOTE: These rankings reflect the composite score to get a feel for the overall consensus, not our own opinion. For example, if a player was the first pick on a publication’s mock draft, he received 58 points. If a player was second, he received 57 points and so on. We then tabulated the total number of points for each player’s consensus ranking.

HoopsHype’s Alberto de Roa contributed research to this report

Klay Thompson called back to an old Kanye West lyric on Instagram after another incredible Game 6 performance

Game 6 Klay is inevitable, y’all.

Game 6 Klay Thompson is just incredible, man. He knows when the moment is his. It’s been this way for as long as we can remember.

It all starts with 2016 against the Thunder. Then you can go to 2019 against the Rockets. And even 2019 in the NBA Finals against the Raptors before he tore his ACL. Game 6 Klay Thompson is just a beast.

He gave us another great one on Friday when the Warriors eliminated the Grizzlies. Thompson put up 30 points and hit 8 3-pointers to put the Grizz away for good. That’s a bad man.

The best part is he actually knows this, too. He’s well aware of his Game 6 lore. So much so that he evoked an old Kanye West lyric on Instagram and included himself in picture with some legends to do it.

Remember that old lyric from [expletive] in Paris from Watch The Throne with Kanye West and Jay-Z? West goes:

“Psycho, I’m liable to go Michael, take your pick
Jackson, Tyson, Jordan, Game 6”

Classic bars from Kanye back when he was still good at rapping. That’s another story for another day, though.

Anyway, here were the pictures on Klay Thompson’s Instagram story after Game 6.

HE is Game 6 now. Klay Thompson himself. And, honestly given the history there, I don’t really feel like any of us are in the position to argue with him on it.

You never want to run into Game 6 Klay. Ever. The Grizzlies learned that the hard way.

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Ja Morant had a savage response to Johnathan Kuminga after he trolled the Grizzlies but fans thought it was uncalled for

Is Ja Morant out of pocket here, too?

The Grizzlies-Warriors second-round series has probably been one of the chippiest in this year’s playoffs.

You’ve had the teams sniping trash talk back and forth, weird ejections,  extremely physical play and so much more. These two teams already had a budding rivalry coming into the series after the Grizzlies eliminated the Warriors from the play-in tournament last year. Plus there was the weird Andre Iguodala bee, too.

So it’s no surprise that after the series was over when the Warriors won Game 6 all of that continued.

After the game, Johnathan Kuminga tweeted “whoop that….” which is a clear nod to the Grizzlies’ “Whoop that trick” rallying cry from Hustle & Flow which is a movie Gen Z probably don’t know nothing about.

Kuminga was still out here getting spicy, though.

Ja Morant caught wind of this, though, and he absolutely was not having it. He told the kid to get his stripes up and, honestly, can’t say I blame him.

Now, had this been Klay Thompson or Steph Curry or someone of that ilk, there really wouldn’t be too much to say. But Johnathan Kuminga? Buddy, this wasn’t your best series.

Now, to be fair to Kuminga, he is going to the NBA Conference Finals in his rookie year. That’s further than Morant and crew have ever gotten even if he’s not the main catalyst for it.

Fans also seemed to think Morant was out of pocket for telling Kuminga to chill out. Because, of course, he hasn’t done too much winning himself just yet in the NBA.

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