Ja Morant produced a virtuoso 52-point performance as the Memphis Grizzlies defeated the San Antonio Spurs 118-105 in the NBA’s Western Conference clash on Monday.
Morant made 22 of 30 shots from the field in a magical display for Memphis, who bounced back in style following their defeat to the Chicago Bulls on Saturday.
Morant’s masterpiece included two dazzling season highlights — an astonishing dunk over the Spurs center Jakob Poeltl. He then topped that on the stroke of halftime with a gravity-defying fade-away jump shot after plucking a length-of-the-court pass from Steven Adams out of the air.
Photo: AP
The win leaves Memphis in third in the Western Conference with 43 wins and 20 defeats, trailing the Golden State Warriors (43-18) and the leading Phoenix Suns (49-12).
Elsewhere on Monday, the Miami Heat shut down DeMar DeRozan to rout the Chicago Bulls 112-99 in their top-of-the-table Eastern Conference clash.
While Gabe Vincent and Tyler Herro scored 20 points apiece, and Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo each had 15, Miami’s hard-nosed defensive display also played a huge role in the win by holding the Bulls’ DeRozan to 18 points.
Miami improved to 41-21 at the top of the conference standings, while the Bulls remain in second at 39-23.
“We set multiple things for him — we blitzed him, we tried to give him everything we had and make him uncomfortable,” Vincent said of Miami’s defense of DeRozan. “He made some shots despite it, but we came out with the win.”
“This means a lot — we’re playing a lot of tough teams this week,” Vincent added. “We wanted to set the tone for the week we want to have.”
Save for a brief spell early in the first quarter, Miami led throughout and after erupting in the third quarter — outscoring Chicago 36-21 — had taken a 24-point lead to effectively settle the contest.
Also on Monday, it was:
‧ Raptors 133, Nets 97
‧ Bucks 130, Hornets 106
‧ Timberwolves 127, Cavaliers 122
‧ Magic 119, Pacers 103
‧ Kings 131, Thunder 110
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