Ja Morant lifts Grizz with 34 points, buzzer-beater in return

 Star point guard Ja Morant of the Memphis Grizzlies battled weariness with 9.6 seconds left in his postponed season debut after leading his team back from a 24-point hole to tie the game. Using a massager on his calves, which he claimed were beginning to cramp during the break, Morant proposed a play that would have power forward Jaren Jackson Jr. post up.

Sensing the opportunity and having watched Morant take command in the closing minutes, Grizzlies shooting guard Desmond Bane rejected that strategy right away./

"He told me, 'F--- no, you get the ball,'" recalled Kevin Morant following Tuesday night's 115-113 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans for the Grizzlies. "I basically had to lock on and go deliver at that point. And I did."

With a game-winning buzzer-beater to cap off a 34-point, six-rebound, eight-assist effort, Morant delivered a thrilling display. At the Smoothie King Centre, he b

eat Herbert Jones, the defensive stopper for the Pelicans, with a spin move in the lane before laying the ball in as time ran out.

After completing a 25-game ban for flashing a pistol on an Instagram Live video in May—his second such incident in as many months—Morant calmed the New Orleans supporters who had been jeering him when he first returned. The hundreds of Grizzlies fans in the arena, including Morant's father Tee and best friend Davonte Pack, who were seated courtside on the baseline steps away from the Memphis bench, burst into cheers as did his teammates.