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All-Star guard Ja Morant won’t be on the court when the Grizzlies take the floor against the Warriors on Monday night, but his injury status didn’t prevent him from hopping on Twitter before tip-off.
Shortly before Game 4 of the Western Conference playoff series got underway, Morant took to social media to send out an optimistic message to his followers.
“stand tall. stay solid. - God wouldn’t put something hard in your life if he thought you weren’t strong enough to get thru it,” he wrote.
Morant’s tweet came just after Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins ruled out his starting point guard from Monday’s game with a right knee injury. Jenkins said that Morant will continue to be evaluated in the coming days and that the team’s doctors will continue to work on the All-Star’s knee.
Morant suffered the injury late in Memphis’s 142–112 loss to Golden State in Saturday’s Game 3. He was then seen limping around the Chase Center postgame, though no official diagnosis was provided by the Grizzlies at the time. Memphis had listed him as doubtful to play prior to Jenkins’s announcement on Monday evening.
The injury halts an impressive stretch of playoff performances for the NBA’s 2021–22 Most Improved Player. Morant has averaged 27.1 points, 9.8 assists, eight rebounds and two steals per contest in nine games this postseason. Behind his efforts, the Grizzlies powered their way into the second round, where they’ve gone toe-to-toe with an experienced Warriors team.
Memphis will now face a tough task against Golden State with Morant unavailable for Game 4. Already trailing in the series 2–1, the Grizzlies will need a heroic performance from the rest of the roster to pull even with the Warriors on Monday.
