It’s safe to say that the Memphis Grizzlies game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on April 24 at FedExForum changed when Ja Morant crashed to the floor after a second-quarter foul by Lu Dort.
Morant and the Grizzlies had built a 27-point lead when Dort undercut Morant on a dunk attempt. Scotty Pippen had dropped the ball back to Morant after a fast break, and Dort was slipping as he looked toward Morant. He undercut him, and Morant crashed to the floor on his hip.
“Tough one,” Dort said after the game. “Obviously I hope he’s OK. 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. I tried to make a play on the ball, but we just ran into each other and he fell down. But I hope he’s OK. I didn’t mean to hit him like that.”
The officials reviewed the play for a possible flagrant foul, but it stayed as a common foul upon review. Morant was ruled out for the rest of the game with a hip injury, and the Thunder turned things around in a major way.
Down 26 at the half, they chopped away at the deficit and took the lead in the final minutes en route to an eventual 114-108 win.
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Dort knows there will be plenty of negativity directed at him.
“They can say whatever,” he said. “Just know it was big that he still got up and shot the free throws. When he was at the line, I dapped him up and I apologized obviously. It’s never good when a good player like that goes down. But people can say whatever they want.”
Dort said Morant didn’t say anything back.
“He dapped me up,” Dort said. “That was it. That was enough. At least he knows that I didn’t mean to take him down like that.”
Grizzlies guard Desmond Bane said he didn’t have a great view of the play, but he called it “reckless.”
“Anytime you come underneath a guy in the air, it’s not a basketball play,” Bane said. “I didn’t have a good look at it to see what had happened, but coming underneath a guy in the air is reckless.”
Reach sports writer Jonah Dylan at [email protected] or on X @thejonahdylan.
