Grizzlies’ playoff push in peril with Ja Morant ankle injury ahead of Mavericks’ KO battle

The Memphis Grizzlies need one victory to reach the playoffs and there is no telling whether their best player will be on the floor.

Grizzlies star point guard Ja Morant missed Thursday’s practice due to his injured right ankle and will be a game-time decision when Memphis hosts the Dallas Mavericks in Friday night’s (Saturday, April 19, Manila time) play-in game.

The winner earns the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference playoffs and will face the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round. The season is over for the loser.

Grizzlies interim coach Tuomas Iisalo is hopeful Morant’s ankle will improve leading up to tipoff.

“My feel with him is he’ll do absolutely everything in order to play,” Iisalo said after Thursday’s practice. “If he’s physically able to do it, he will do it. It’s a legitimate game-time decision.”

Morant was injured during Tuesday night’s 121-116 road loss to the Golden State Warriors in the first West game of the play-in tournament. He landed on the foot of Golden State’s Buddy Hield with 4:25 left in the third quarter and was in excruciating pain on the floor.

He stayed in to make a free throw to finish a three-point play, then exited before later returning in the fourth quarter. He had 22 points.

Morant insisted after the contest that he would play on Friday. The real verdict will arrive when rosters are turned in before the game against Dallas.

“If he feels he’s good to go, we have full trust in him,” Iisalo said. “He’s also a very good judge of how and if he’s ready to go or not. I’m leaning on the experts in this situation, which clearly I’m not in the medical department.”

Two seasons, two directions

Memphis (48-34) looked headed to a high seed before encountering problems late in the season. The Grizzlies lost 10 of their last 16 regular-season games and fired coach Taylor Jenkins during the struggles as they fell into the play-in round.

“It’s just frustrating because of how far we fell,” Grizzlies guard Scotty Pippen Jr. said. “I wouldn’t say we were confident in where we were at, but the fall has been pretty hard on the team.”

Dallas (39-43) enters the contest brimming with confidence after posting a dominating 120-106 victory over the host Sacramento Kings in Wednesday’s play-in game.

Anthony Davis stood out with 27 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots in just his 10th game for the Mavericks since being acquired in the deal that sent Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Klay Thompson also was on the mark and made five 3-pointers while scoring 23 points.

One season ago, Thompson went scoreless and missed all 10 of his shots in a play-in contest against the Kings in his final appearance for the Golden State Warriors.

“I think when you look at Klay, he’s a pro, he’s won, he’s a champion,” Dallas coach Jason Kidd said of Thompson, who has won four titles. “In that situation, you can only learn from it if you count that as a failure or a mishap.”

The Mavericks were riddled with injuries late in the season and dropped four of their final five regular-season contests. However, Dallas led by as many as 26 points in the rabid Sacramento atmosphere while keeping its season alive.

“We shot it very well, got stops on defense and were able to run,” Davis said. “Offense was clicking. We had what, 44 in the (second) quarter? We played with a lot of pace and opened up the game.”

Memphis won three of the four regular-season meetings, including a 132-97 whipping of the visiting Mavericks on Sunday. Both teams rested key players.

Five days later, both teams will be in do-or-die mode.

“We know how talented that group is and they have a great home court,” Thompson said. “We’re going to go to Memphis and lay it all out there and that’s all we can ask.” – Rappler.com