LOS ANGELES – Things are trending up for Ja Morant.
The Grizzlies practicing on the campus of UCLA Friday with Morant, sidelined in game two with an injured hand, going through a full — non contact– practice.
His right hand was still taped.
He’ll still be a gametime decision for Saturday but the risk of resting him in game two, looks like it will pay off for the Grizzlies.
Morant did dribble and shoot with that right hand at practice and the pain is much less than earlier in the week but he is still not 100-percent.
“Still navigating a little bit of pain. But as I said, I mean, there’s improved symptoms for sure. I think his dribbling is improving, the shooting, the confidence is there. It’s just catching the ball that he’s kind of having to navigate a little bit. But it’s so much better than it was two days ago,” said Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins.
The plan now is to push Morant even harder between now and Saturday night’s late tip time.
“We’re trying to push him right now in the workout for sure to really test it out and then try to give him a good workout in the morning, separate from the team and just see how he responds to that so that we have a really good feel for what 40 minutes of NBA basketball would look like.”
“He had a good day today. We’ll see what tomorrow brings,” said Grizzlies guard Tyus Jones. “But yeah, as far as today goes, it was a good day. Good to see him back on the court and hopefully he’s good to go.”
