NBA Twitter tries to cast blame on a play involving Klay Thompson that actually injured Ja Morant, not Jordan Poole.
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Injuries have become quite common in this year’s Playoffs as they were in last year’s as well. Ja Morant has become the most recent addition to a seemingly non-exhaustive list of stars who have had injury scares or have been sidelined due to it.
The Grizzlies-Warriors Game 3 saw quite the lopsided battle ensue as the Warriors beat the brakes off Taylor Jenkins and his players, opening up the entire game in the 3rd quarter. The Grizz actually had a 21-8 lead at one point but that soon dwindled down and the Grizz would eventually lose 142-112.
En route to getting the 30-point dub, Jordan Poole and Ja Morant got caught up trying to get a loose ball in the 4th quarter. Poole was seen ‘grabbing and yanking’ at Morant’s leg (as said by Taylor Jenkins) and this led to the Memphis icon injuring his right knee.
Or so that’s what people thought.
Klay Thompson close-out could have been the reason Ja Morant injured his knee.
A play early in the 3rd quarter sees Ja Morant aggressively trying to close out Klay Thompson on a 3-point attempt. In the process of contesting the shot, Morant hits his knee on Thompson. The sharpshooting Warriors guard seemed fine but Morant was seen limping onto the sidelines for a couple seconds before getting back into the play.
NBA Twitter has begun to cast doubt over whether it was really Jordan Poole’s fault or if it was this Thompson who was inadvertently responsible for Ja’s right knee injury.
Broo its clearly Thompson fault
— BleBleBle (@Koentoel46) May 8, 2022
No you stop it. Watch that full play over on YouTube and watch Ja in the upper right hand corner. He starts limping immediately after this play. I swear it’s like yall don’t watch the game
— Prophecy (@Da_RealProphecy) May 8, 2022
Wait til he watches the game film and sees how Ja actually re-aggravated his injury closing out a shot by Klay Thompson 👀
— Jonathan Young Stan Account (@SimpPrinceBrad) May 8, 2022
However, the one issue here is that Ja Morant continued to stay in the game after this Klay close-out. The Poole play on the other hand, clearly disoriented him for the remainder of the game.
The Murray State alum even took to Twitter to say that Jordan Poole had ‘broken the code’. He would go on to delete this tweet as his comments were flooded with people posting a video of Desmond Bane launching himself at Poole’s legs.
Grizzlies fans are calling for a Game 4 suspension of Poole the way Dillon Brooks was suspended for Game 3 after injuring Gary Payton II in Game 2. Unfortunately for them, this is highly unlikely.
