Ja Morant Shows Respect to OKC Thunder Before Round 1 Matchup

The Oklahoma City Thunder are taking on the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday in Game 1 of the First Round of the NBA Playoffs.

The Grizzlies punched its ticket to its rightful spot as the Western Conference's No. 8 seed in the Western Conference on Friday by beating down the Dallas Mavericks to put the Mavs out of its missery in a season that has been detrailed.

Fresh off a lopsided win, Grizzlies star Ja Morant took to the podium and was peppered with questions about Memphis' first round matchup, where he offered high compliments to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

"Big challenge. Obviously, we've all seen them this season. Very well-rounded team. I feel like they have the potential MVP over there, Shai leading the charge. We got to be very sound defensively, very disciplined and just play our type of basketball," Morant said after Friday's win against the Dallas Mavericks.

The most popular pick for this series, is the Thunder to gentlemen sweep the Grizzlies. Though, to get to that end result the games will be tighter than they were in the regular season you have to imagine.

This season, Morant has played in two of the four matchups against the Thunder. In those games he is averaging 20 points, four rebounds, six assists and shooting 34% from the floor, 30% from beyond the arc and 80% from the charity stripe.

The Series begins with Game 1 on Sunday April 20 at 12 PM CT, with the game slated for ABC to tip-off day two of the NBA Playoffs. Up next, Game 2 will take place in the Paycom Center on Tuesday broadcasted on TNT with tip-off slated for 6:30 PM CT.