The Philadelphia 76ers were able to come away with an impressive 122-119 overtime win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday as Joel Embiid rested, but they certainly had to earn this one.
Despite big performances from Tyrese Maxey and Tobias Harris, it almost didn’t matter as Grizzlies star Ja Morant seemed unstoppable. Morant finished with 37 points on 15-for-30 shooting and he scored 22 points combined in the third and fourth quarters. The Sixers had a tough time stopping him.
It did not matter what kind of defense Philadelphia threw at him, Morant was making a crazy assortment of acrobatic layups and And-1 finishes. It was a phenomenal performance for one of the game’s brightest stars.
“He’s just tough,” said coach Doc Rivers. “He’s a helluva player. Man, he made shot after shot after shot for them, but I kept telling our guys don’t overreact. His two points seem like they’re more than two and we talked about that at halftime. Like OK, I know it’s an amazing shot, but I swear to God, he only gets two points for them. So just don’t overreact and just keep playing. I thought we did that.”
With no Embiid, Morant was able to have his success at the rim. Andre Drummond more than made up for Embiid’s absence with three blocks of his own, but Morant made life miserable every time Drummond was switched onto him in the pick-and-roll.
“I feel like with that, he’s a great athlete,” Drummond explained. “He’s able to make spectacular plays, and get the ooh’s and ahh’s from the crowd, but at the end of the day, those are still two points. You don’t get extra points for style so we did a good job of just moving on to the next play and not falling asleep or falling into that lull of the cute plays.”
Tyrese Maxey went toe-to-toe with Morant as he scored 33 points of his own on 13-for-23 shooting and he had eight assists. The two of them also went back and forth a bit in this one as they were answering each other with impressive buckets.
“Two competitors trying to win,” said Maxey. “That’s about it. He’s an All-Star starter, we know what he can do, he’s very talented, dynamic getting downhill, and very athletic. We did our best to contain him and just try to get the W.”
Still, as Rivers and Drummond pointed out, no matter how tough or impressive Morant’s shots were, they all did count the same. The Sixers just had to move on to the next play and they did so by getting the win.
“He’s a great basketball player,” Drummond added of Morant. “He made great plays down the stretch and you gotta take your hat off to him, but we won the game so it doesn’t matter, that type of stuff.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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