Morant is Knicks' ‘Ja’ One That Got Away
NEW YORK – In 2009, the New York Knicks came one pick short of having Stephen Curry, who would become the greatest shooter of all time. A decade later, the Knicks appeared to have fallen one pick short again.
In the 2019 NBA Draft, the Knicks settled for RJ Barrett, the top overall pick Zion Williamson’s running mate at Duke. Ja Morant, the electrifying point guard out of Murray State, went second to the rebuilding Memphis Grizzlies, who just traded away their best player Mike Conley.
Three years later, Morant, with jets on his ankles, is soaring to great heights at a blazing speed. He turned into an All-Star starter while leading the Grizzlies to the top three of the Western Conference.
Barrett reached the playoffs ahead of Morant last season, but he was only the Robin to Julius Randle’s Batman. While Barrett has the time to get there, the Knicks could only wish they had somebody like Morant.
On Wednesday night (Thursday Manila time), Barrett and Morant went mano-a-mano, point for point, but in the end, it was the brash and trash-talking Morant who made the loudest statement.
Morant did not shoot particularly well, but his 23 points were louder than Barrett’s own 23, and his nine assists were the catalyst in the Grizzlies’ 120-108 win over the hard-luck Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
“I felt like I played terrible,” Morant said. “If you asked me, that was probably one of the worst games I played in my career.”
Even on one of Morant’s worst shooting nights – 9 for 27 from the field – the Knicks had no answer.
“It’s a uniqueness,” Tom Thibodeau said before the game as he groped for words to describe the electrifying Grizzlies point guard. “He’s an offense unto himself. The explosiveness like his ability to change speeds and direction, stop on a dime, go a different way, Euro step.”
“It’s a lot to deal with and then the explosiveness at the rim. So, you’ve got to really guard him with your whole team, and he can still make plays.”
Morant played precisely like that.
When he wasn’t punishing the Knicks' defense, he bent it so his teammates could get open looks.
Morant didn’t waste time flashing his star that sparkled so bright in the most famous arena. He scored Memphis’ first two points in a style – a hesitation drive that ended on a floater after freezing Barrett in between the rim and the 15-foot line.
Forty seconds later, Morant disrupted the Knicks’ offense. His steal led to a fastbreak play where the Grizzlies are thriving this season. Morant raced to their basket with an appreciative Garden crowd holding their collective breath in anticipation of a highlight play from the one that got away.
Morant saw Randle waiting for him. But the attention on the Grizzliesstar freed up Memphis rookie Ziaire Williams from the opposite wing. Morant threw up the lob. Slam. Williams threw down the first two of his career-high 21 points.
It was the kind of play that frustrated the Knicks, who came into the game with the perfect game plan to stop Memphis’ 1-2 punch.
Morant’s backcourt partner Desmond Bane also struggled to get his rhythm, shooting only 4 for 18 from the field in the face of the Knicks’ tenacious defense. But he hit a clutch three-pointer with 1:08 left that took the life out of the Knicks rallying spirit as the Grizzlies went up, 115-106.
Morant and Bane drew so much attention and missed many shots. But their veteran center Steven Adams cleaned up their misses with eight of the Grizzlies’ 15 offensive rebounds. It translated to 25 second-chance points.
“The offensive rebounding costs us in the fourth quarter,” Thibodeau lamented. “That’s the challenge. You have to commit to Morant, and then you’ve got to find bodies [to box out] and finish your defense, and we didn’t do that.”
Thibodeau already had an inkling of what was to come, but there was nothing his team could have done better to stop the Memphis freight train.
“He’s fearless,” Thibodeau said of Morant before the game. “That’s the thing if he gets you backpedaling, you know you’re gonna be reacting to him, and he basically can get where he wants to go.”
“So that it requires your team to be tight together. But that being said, he also has the ability to make plays and create for others. And then it’s the havoc that he creates by being in the paint which leads to open perimeter shots, but also the second shot because you’re coming off bodies, and they’re big.”
Five more Grizzlies scored in double figures led by their modern big man Jaren Jackson, Jr., who pumped in 26 points on 4 of 7 three-pointers.
Despite a bad shooting night, Morant was relentless. He has the Allen Iverson swagger mixed with Russell Westbrook’s explosiveness.
After Barrett made a breakaway dunk to cut the Grizzlies’ lead, 111-102, with under two minutes left, Morant tried to one-up his Draft classmate.
He blew past Barrett and attempted to dunk over Mitchell Robinson. Morant was unfazed even if Robinson was having a block party with a season-high eight swats.
Robinson was expecting Morant, and they met at the summit.
“I’ve seen a lot of videos of him [doing that], so I was just waiting when he would try to do that to me,” Robinson said. “That was a crazy play right there. “I just went vertical. [It was a] whatever happens, happens kind of thing. I just took the challenge.”
Robinson saved the play and his life, but he didn’t come away unscathed. The Knicks center got hit with his only foul in the game. Morant split his free throws to extend the Grizzlies to a comfortable 10-point lead.
“He’s a very talented player,” Robinson added. “He got a skill like he can go slow to fast like he can turn it on and off.”
Morant’s spell-binding speed and his off-the-charts basketball IQ have fast-tracked the Grizzlies’ rebuild after the Grit ‘n Grind era ended.
Memphis is the home of the blues and the birthplace of rock n’ roll. Their team, led by the graceful yet audacious Morant, have successfully married the defining elements of the polar opposite musical genre. They let you feel their soul with their smooth transition play and rock you with electrifying plays when they are rolling.
To the fans, the Grizzlies are entertaining. But to their opponents, they’re annoying.
Bane and the Grizzlies had several heated moments with Randle, the Knicks’ emotional leader. Despite being the second-youngest team in the league, the Grizzlies didn’t back down.
“There ain’t no running in the M (Memphis), man,” Morant said. “We climb up the chimney. We ain’t ducking no smoke. We’re gonna let everybody know we’re here.”
“We’re gonna play hard. We’re trying to get a win, and if you don’t like it? Oh, Well.”
Randle came one assist short of a triple-double (18 points, 12 rebounds, and nine assists), but he bled for his points on 18 shots. He fell into the Memphis trap and got ejected with the game already beyond reach.
Morant circled this game on his calendar after his showdown with fellow rising star Dejounte Murrayand hisSan Antonio Spurs last week got bumped off ESPN’s schedule in favor of the Knicks-Miami Heat game.
When a reporter reminded Morant that Wednesday’s game was on ESPN, he had a scathing remark.
“With the team, they kicked us off for?” Morant said. What happened? Who won?”
The Knicks lost the game to a star they’ve been craving for, to the one that got away.
In part, they’ve lost the game due to a few unlucky bounces of the ball. But in the larger scheme of things, they’ve lost a star due to the unlucky bounce of the ping pong balls.
Their perpetual search for a star point guard that could electrify the Garden and deliver inspiring wins never seemed to end.
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Alder Almo is a former senior sportswriter for Philstar.com and NBA.com Philippines. He is now based in Jersey City, New Jersey, and writes for the New York-based sports website empiresportsmedia.com.
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