Morant Leads Grizzlies to Victory in Spectacular Return
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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:03 >> Very rare that a player on a team that is 7 and
00:06 19 can steal the headlines of the NBA slate last night.
00:09 But indeed, that is what happened as John Morant made his return
00:14 following a 25 game suspension for offseason antics,
00:18 in season antics you could say as well.
00:21 And I guess the question now becomes, can you go from 12 games under to like 500,
00:25 get in the playoffs, make some noise?
00:28 I'm not gonna answer that question.
00:29 Let's bring in Gilbert McGregor,
00:30 he's got a better sense as to whether or not this can happen.
00:33 And Gilbert, making headlines for the right reasons,
00:36 I think that's probably the best way to describe last night's John Morant
00:40 performance and it was great to see, wasn't it?
00:42 >> Absolutely, Craig, it's good to see John Morant back on a basketball court for
00:48 one, and then for two,
00:50 it's good to see him back on a basketball court doing what he does best.
00:54 I think the biggest of optimists couldn't have predicted John Morant to
00:58 return from a 25 game suspension the way that he did last night.
01:02 To finish with 34 points, eight assists, and six rebounds,
01:05 including the game winner as time expired to cap off a 27 point second half.
01:11 I mean, it honestly sounds storybook like somebody kind of wrote that.
01:14 And as you told me before the game,
01:15 I wouldn't have believed that the game would have gone that way.
01:18 But I think the incredible thing about his performance was that he really only
01:22 showed signs of rust in that first half.
01:24 And once the second half kind of got underway, he settled down,
01:27 he looked like he looked much more comfortable next to his teammates
01:30 once again, and they trailed by as many as 24 points in this game.
01:34 So if you wanna get into the symbolism of it,
01:36 maybe you look at their record right now at 6-19 without him and
01:39 7-19 after this first win.
01:41 And say maybe he can bring them back similarly from this deficit they face
01:46 over the season, and they're gonna get healthy at the right time.
01:48 Marcus Smart will be back in the lineup soon enough.
01:50 Luke Kennard is another guy who will be back in the lineup soon enough.
01:53 So if things start clicking the right way for this Grizzlies team,
01:57 with the play-in tournament, maybe they can just shoot to be, win 39 or
02:01 40 games and have an opportunity to compete in the postseason.
02:05 Because as we learned last night, or
02:07 were reminded last night when you have John Moran on your side,
02:10 a lot of things are possible.
02:11 >> Yeah, and I think that's a great point, Gilbert, because again,
02:15 the Lakers don't necessarily have their great regular season.
02:18 Yet LeBron carries that team to that in-season tournament.
02:21 The Miami Heat did very little in the regular season last year.
02:24 They get all the way to the finals.
02:26 So I guess realistically speaking, I don't think anybody's gonna be picking
02:30 Memphis to win the championship anytime soon.
02:32 But as we take a look at some of the odds over on FanDuel,
02:34 their win total is 34 and a half.
02:37 That's an uphill battle too, let's be real.
02:39 They're 12 games under.
02:40 They'd have to be the best team in the NBA to get to 38,
02:43 39 I would think at this point.
02:45 But 34 and a half is possible.
02:48 I mean, look, you could make a fortune if somehow they were to win the Southwest or
02:53 win the Western Conference.
02:54 I'm not gonna sit here and predict that, but I think you kind of outlined it.
02:58 Like best case scenario for them would be what,
03:01 like play in 11 seeds, something like that?
03:03 >> I think so, and that 34 and a half win total actually is really enticing to me.
03:09 Because when you think about it, they're 7-19,
03:11 they need to go 28-28 to close the season.
03:14 So long as John Moran is in a lineup for the majority of these games,
03:18 I think this is a 500 team.
03:20 They play in a division that has the Rockets and the Pelicans and the Mavericks,
03:23 and the Spurs, who have done a lot of losing this year.
03:26 So if they're able to take care of business in games that they should take
03:29 care of business, I think having a star of John Moran's caliber
03:34 allows you to maybe surprise some teams.
03:36 And again, if they can get healthy at the right time,
03:39 take advantage of some layoffs that happened at the Christmas break and
03:42 the All-Star break, and string together some wins,
03:45 I certainly think they can play 500 basketball.
03:47 Maybe even a little bit above 500, but I don't think they're gonna be in any
03:51 postseason conversations unless they get at least 37 or 38 wins.
03:55 And even that might be a stretch.
03:57 [MUSIC]