Grrrevenge denied

Good morning. In a fun twist, the Grizzlies led the Thunder by 29. (OKC still won.) Also, the Clutch Player of the Year lived up to the title and the Clippers asserted their dominance. Let's basketball.

Seeing the scorebug for Thunder vs. Grizzlies Game 3 in the right corner of the screen while watching the opening of Nuggets vs. Clippers Game 3 made me do something I'm hesitant to do in the playoffs: I went split-screen. OKC getting trucked by Memphis on one side of the screen. "Big Game" James Harden trying to help L.A. pull away from Denver on the other.

It all changed for the former game, of course, when with the Grizzlies up 27 Ja Morant fell from the sky, undercut by a slipping Lu Dort.

The Thunder cut it to 10 late in the third, tied the game early in the fourth and handled the final minutes to go up 3-0. Morant did not return after those free throws and his status for Game 4 is unknown.

Once Morant went down, the air was sucked out of the building and out of the team. Scotty Pippen Jr. had a magical performance but needed another point guard to lift up the team once the Thunder went on the prowl. Memphis didn't have it. Alex Caruso was like a wolf out on the perimeter: he had four steals in the second half. And Chet Holmgren hit some big shots late.

Oklahoma City was going to win this series regardless of what happened here, and who knows? Maybe they mount a comeback even if Morant dunks that ball and stays in the game. But you do wonder how the Thunder locker room is really thinking about this game. Because Memphis had them dead to rights for 21 minutes until they (the Thunder) knocked the Grizzlies' best player out of the game. If Morant is able to play, what's the early vibe of Game 4 going to look like? Because all of a sudden, it doesn't necessarily look like the Thunder's second-round opponent is going to be trapped in a 7-game war.

(How's that for a segue?)