Ja Morant doesn’t want to talk about his 4th quarter performance and instead wants some respect to be put on Jaren Jackson Jr’s name.
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Tonight’s Memphis Grizzlies comeback victory over the New York Knicks was quite fitting considering the fact that Ja Morant is currently 4th on the MVP leaderboard. To be right there amongst the likes of Nikola Jokic, Giannis, and Joel Embiid, is no small feat, especially for a 3rd year player in this league.
The FedEx Forum arena was on fire tonight as despite the Knicks outscoring the Grizzlies by 14 points in the 3rd quarter, Ja Morant and company rallied back in the fourth to take the game away from them. Julius Randle had a valiant effort of 36 points and 12 rebounds questionable shooting.
The stars of the night, as expected, were the two pillars that the Memphis Grizzlies have been built their team upon. Morant put up 37 points on a wild 14-33 shooting from the field while Jaren Jackson Jr altered quite nearly every single shot in the paint by the Knicks and registered 5 blocks.
Ja Morant wants more people to talk about Jaren Jackson Jr.
Ja Morant has always had the mentality of wanting to give props to his teammates first, before talking about what he’s done during a game. His most repetitive request from the media this season has been to show more love to Jaren Jackson Jr, who he believes is the Defensive Player of the Year.
Ja Morant: “Enough about me. That’s fourth quarter was all Jaren.”
He said Jaren’s defense is what flipped the game. Also preached that he should be Defensive Player of the Year.
— Drew Hill (@DrewHill_DM) March 12, 2022
While JJJ deserves to be in the running for DPOY, that award is usually given off of reputation more so than off of who had the better defensive statistical season. The two atop the DPOY leaderboard are Giannis and Mikal Bridges and both these players have built themselves up to have become defensive savants.
One point to note from last night’s game between the Grizzlies and the Knicks: the former notched a whopping 72 points in the paint for their total 118 points on the night.
