Ja Morant’s triple-double halts Grizzlies’ skid, sinks Pacers

Behind a second consecutive triple-double by Ja Morant, the Memphis Grizzlies rallied from 12 points down at halftime to snap a season-high five-game losing streak with a 112-100 home win over the Indiana Pacers on Sunday, January 29 (Monday, January 30, Manila time).

Morant had 27 points, 15 assists, and 10 rebounds for his fifth triple-double of the season. Jaren Jackson Jr. added 28 points and 8 rebounds for the Grizzlies.

Ziaire Williams started in place of Desmond Bane (knee soreness) and had 7 points and two rebounds for the Grizzlies. Brandon Clarke recorded 13 points and 2 rebounds starting in place of Steven Adams (sprained knee).

Xavier Tillman (9 points, 11 rebounds), David Roddy (11 points), and Tyus Jones (10 points) came up big off the bench for Memphis.

Bennedict Mathurin had a team-high 27 points and 8 rebounds for Indiana. Aaron Nesmith tallied 16 points and 5 rebounds, while Myles Turner added 15 points and 4 boards.

Andrew Nembhard (12 points) and Isaiah Jackson (13 points) were terrific off the bench for the Pacers. T.J. McConnell was held scoreless starting in place of Tyrese Haliburton (knee contusion, sprained elbow), who missed his 10th straight game.

Indiana jumped out to a 32-23 first-quarter lead behind 8 points from Nesmith and 9 points from Mathurin off the bench. Jackson contributed 9 points in the opening quarter as Memphis shot just 15.4% (2-of-13) from the three-point line.

The Pacers maintained a 52-35 lead with 5:31 to go until halftime behind a red-hot offense that was shooting 60% from the field (18-of-30), including 42.9% (6-of-14) from behind the arc.

But Memphis outscored the Pacers 15-10 for the remainder of quarter and entered halftime trailing the visitors 62-50. Morant and Jackson combined for 31 of the Grizzlies’ first-half points.

An 18-2 run, sparked by an alley-oop from Morant to Jackson, tied the game at 70-all with 4:35 to go in the third quarter. Memphis took an 80-79 lead with a quarter to play on a Roddy jumper with 34 seconds to go.

A thunderous dunk by Morant capped a 7-0 early fourth-quarter run and put the Grizzlies up 87-79 with a little over 10 minutes to play.

Memphis outscored Indiana 32-21 in the fourth. – Rappler.com