Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant’s status for Game 4 of their first-round series against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday is unclear. Morant injured his hip after taking a hard fall during Thursday’s Game 3.
“He’s going through further evaluations tomorrow and then we’ll know more,” Grizzlies coach Tuomas Iisalo told reporters Thursday.
Late in the second quarter, Memphis was up by 27 points when Scotty Pippen Jr. dropped off a pass to Morant on a fast break. The Thunder’s Lu Dort, who was chasing Pippen, slipped as he turned around and crashed into an airborne Morant.
Morant stayed down for a while, then missed both free throws and checked out of the game. He did not return, and Oklahoma City made a historic comeback, coming away with a 114-108 win. The Thunder are one win away from advancing to the second round, and they and have outscored the Grizzlies by 60 points in the 62 minutes that Morant has been on the bench during the series.
The injury affected Memphis’ energy and execution “quite drastically,” Iisalo said.
Officials reviewed the play and determined it was not a flagrant foul.
“It’s a tough one,” Dort told reporters, via ESPN. “I was running back, making a hustle play for my team. I was running quick, stopped on a dime. I didn’t know he was behind me and I was slipping, so I still tried to make a play on the ball.”
Dort added: “I hope he’s OK. I obviously didn’t mean to hit him like that.”
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault described the play as “unfortunate” and said he hopes Morant is OK.
“You want everybody to be at full strength,” Daigneault told reporters. “He’s a great competitor, he was playing great, obviously that had something to do with the game as well — it would be wrong of me not to acknowledge that. But I think it was a clean play. I think everybody was just playing hard.”
Morant finished the game with 15 points on 6-for-11 shooting, five assists and zero turnovers. The Grizzlies outscored Oklahoma City by 16 points in his 16 minutes.
Game 4 is Saturday at FedExForum.
