Ja Morant Injured His Right Hand Or Wrist On A Scary Fall After Anthony Davis Slid In Front For A Charge

Ja Morant has been a dominant postseason player when healthy over the last two years, but a year ago his playoffs got cut short due to an injury in Game 3 of the second round against the Warriors. This year, he got off to a solid, even if not spectacular, beginning to his 2023 postseason campaign, scoring 18 points in 30 minutes of action, but in the mid-fourth quarter, he once again had to exit a playoff game with a scary looking injury.

Morant skied to the rim over Anthony Davis who had slid in front to try and take a charge (which he successfully drew, per the officials), but as he came crashing to the floor, he landed awkwardly on his right hand and wrist and was in serious pain, having to leave the court immediately.

You could see on the final replay how his right hand actually gets turned over as he braces himself, leading to the injury that caused him to exit the game.

He would eventually return to the bench with his hand and wrist wrapped, but would not re-enter the game creating plenty of concern moving forward for the Grizzlies in the series. While Memphis hung around briefly, the Lakers would go on a 15-0 run to end the game, closing out what became a 128-112 road win for L.A. It was not a particularly good showing from Memphis, but they were in the game until Morant left with just under six minutes to play and things started to fall apart after that. Without him, they face a seriously uphill battle and we’ll await word on just how severe the injury is and whether he’ll miss time going forward in the series.

UPDATE: The good news on the initial update is there was nothing broken in Morant’s hand or wrist after X-rays were taken, but Taylor Jenkins did say he’s still dealing with considerable pain.

Morant described his pain as a “10” and said his status for Game 2 is definitely in question, as he was unable to use his hand after the game for anything.