Grizzlies' Ja Morant Game 4 Status Revealed Following Significant Injury

The Memphis Grizzlies' last two months have been a time to forget.

With two-time All-Star point guard Ja Morant ailing, Grizzlies general manager Zach Kleiman fired longtime head coach Taylor Jenkins in late March — just weeks before the start of the 2024-25 postseason, with Memphis sporting a 44-29 record.

Under interim head coach Tuomas Iisalo, the Grizzlies stumbled to a 4-5 record to close out the regular season, and had to fight through a pair of play-in tournament games to secure the Western Conference's No. 8 seed — meaning Memphis was due for a first round playoff date against the 68-14 Oklahoma City Thunder.

Despite being led by perpetual Defensive Player of the Year candidate Jaren Jackson Jr., the club's overall effort on that end has looked suspiciously lackluster all year. The team finished the season having allowed 116.9 opponent points per game, good for just the league's 24th-best such metric.

The Grizzlies' bad luck — compounded by bad play — has continued into the playoffs.

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Morant suffered a scary fall during what was looking like a blowout Game 3 home victory against Oklahoma City on Thursday night, when Thunder wing Luguentz Dort undercut the high-flying star. He landed on his hip and looked to be in considerable pain.

At the time, the Grizzlies were leading the Thunder, 67-40, and seemed poised to regain their footing in what had been looking like a pretty lackluster series. Morant was quickly ruled out for the rest of the contest.

Then, however, the tables turned. Oklahoma City turned on the defense, rallying for the biggest NBA playoff comeback since 1997. The Thunder won, 114-108, after outscoring the Grizzlies 74-41 post-Morant.

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With the surprise comeback win, the top-seeded Thunder find themselves leading the series 3-0, a margin that may prove impossible to overcome.

Morant's status for even the next matchup had seemed dicey after the fall.

Now, his availability for Game 4 has been revealed.

Per Shams Charania of ESPN, the 25-year-old superstar will sit out the critical contest, scheduled for Saturday, as the result of what is being called a hip injury.

Given that every game from here on out is do-or-die for the Grizzlies, this could help expedite their offseason.

Charania writes that the 6-foot-2 Weber State product had been playing through "a significant ankle sprain" during last week's play-in tournament run.

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No team in NBA history has ever successfully rallied from an 0-3 series deficit, but that's just what Memphis will have to do against Oklahoma City — starting on Saturday without their star point guard.

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