Tragedy strikes the Grizzlies! They headed into tonight’s Play-in encounter against the Warriors hoping to repeat what they did in 2021. Beat the Bay Area team and book a spot in the playoffs. And despite playing in enemy territory, they did a solid job of keeping the game competitive from the start. But things took an unfortunate turn when the Memphis team’s superstar, Ja Morant, suffered a brutal injury after taking a nasty fall.

It happened midway during the third quarter. Hoping to close the four-point gap, Morant drove to the basket and attempted a tough floater. Although he converted the shot and even drew a foul in the process, the high flyer landed awkwardly and tweaked his right ankle. In a scary sight, Ja fell hard and immediately began favoring his ankle, writhing in immense pain. His teammates and staff rushed to check on him.

He eventually got back up but had to limp to the Grizzlies’ bench. While it was clear that Ja couldn’t continue playing right away, he still had a free throw to make from the foul. Showing true heart, the Grizzlies superstar limped back to the floor and converted the shot from the charity stripes to cut down the Warriors’ lead to one point. As expected, his teammates immediately committed an intentional foul to stop the pla,y and Ja subbed out of the game to assess his injury.

Sure enough, his departure was a massive blow to the team because Ja was on fire before he got injured. He left the game with 18 points on 7 of 14 shooting. One silver lining was that he didn’t head to the locker room. Instead, Morant sat on the bench waiting for treatment.

Ja Morant returned against Warriors despite injury scare, but it was too late!

Understanding what’s at stake, Morant returned to the game soon after. But it was evident that his ankle was still bothering him. He lost the rhythm that he started the night with and added only four more points to his score for the rest of the game. Ja finished with 22 points and three rebounds. Of course, with him out of form, the Warriors took advantage of the opportunity and took over in the final quarter.

Well, there was a point when the game was back within one possession. However, Stephen Curry did what he always does and came in clutch for his team. As a result, they beat the Grizzlies by five points and bagged the seventh seed.

Meanwhile, Ja Morant and Co. will now face tomorrow’s winner of Mavs vs Kings on Friday for the eighth seed. As expected, all eyes will be on Ja’s health and how his ankle is feeling after tonight’s unfortunate incident. Thoughts?