
Ja Morant returned from his one-game suspension but his shooting woes continued Monday. He had plenty of company with his teammates in that area.
The Memphis Grizzlies shot 40.2% from the field in a 114-106 loss to the Detroit Pistons, with Morant going 5-for-16 (31.3%) from the field and missing all four of his three-point shots. It's the fifth time in seven games that Morant hasn't made a three, and he's now shooting 5-for-36 on the season.
Morant is a 13.9% three-point shooter and a 39.3% shooter overall. The Grizzlies are shooting only 44.6% as a team, a bottom-10 mark, so it isn't just the team's ostensible superstar.
Jaylen Wells, Morant's backcourt mate, shot 2-for-14 on Monday. He's shooting 31.8% on the season. Offseason acquisition Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, nominally a three-and-D wing, is at 31.4% on threes and 32.4% overall.
The lone bright spot is rookie Cedric Coward, who scored 17 points against the Pistons and is shooting 58.3% overall and 48.3% on three-pointers.
1⃣2⃣ - 0 run to end the third
— Grind City Media (@grindcitymedia) November 4, 2025
: https://t.co/EhqqTRNE8T pic.twitter.com/oq6QqojYZG
The Grizzlies are missing some rotation players to start the season. Scotty Pippen, Jr. won't be back until January at the earliest. Free-agent signing Ty Jerome won't play his first game for the Grizzlies for at least two more weeks. But this is exactly when a team needs to learn on their superstar, and Morant simply hasn't delivered on either end.
Fellow All-Star Cade Cunningham decisively outplayed Morant, shooting 12-for-20 and putting up 33 points and eight assists. He scored nine points in the final three minutes. Many of Cunningham's 19 fourth-quarter points came at the expense of Morant on defense.
We all need to rewatch Cade's fourth quarter... https://t.co/lxU9PKh5xb pic.twitter.com/IhGI21ZnSr
— Detroit Pistons (@DetroitPistons) November 4, 2025
Cunningham looks like the kind of player NBA teams can build their franchise around. Increasingly, Morant is looking like a player an NBA team can't rely on.
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