{"id":22289,"date":"2025-05-10T00:20:31","date_gmt":"2025-05-10T00:20:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/22289\/"},"modified":"2025-05-10T00:20:31","modified_gmt":"2025-05-10T00:20:31","slug":"memphis-grizzlies-ja-morant-makes-a-bold-claim-after-a-disappointing-loss-against-oklahoma-city-thunder-in-game-1-of-playoffs-nba-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/22289\/","title":{"rendered":"Memphis Grizzlies\u2019 Ja Morant makes a bold claim after a disappointing loss against Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 1 of playoffs | NBA News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MemphisMemphis Grizzlies\u2019 Ja Morant makes a bold claim after a disappointing loss against Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 1 of playoffs (Image Credit: Getty Images)
Addressing the press after an ignominious defeat against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Memphis Grizzlies\u2019 Ja Morant made a bold claim
He displayed an assured side while discussing the team\u2019s strategy for future games
The team\u2019s manager and shooting guard seconded his thoughts and shared how they plan to move ahead in the playoffs
Memphis Grizzlies\u2019 Ja Morant set the tone for the upcoming playoff games by making a bold claim about the team\u2019s ensuing performances. He assured better performance going forward. The Grizzlies\u2019 guard got the support from the team\u2019s interim coach and the shooting guard, who displayed an optimistic viewpoint on the team\u2019s position and seemed determined to improve things.<\/p>\n

Ja Morant took a tough pledge after an ignominious defeat against Oklahoma City Thunder<\/p>\n

The Memphis Grizzlies had a terrible day playing Game 1 against the Oklahoma City Thunder. They scored only 80 points against the Thunder\u2019s 131, becoming the sixth team in the NBA playoffs history to have lost by more than 50 points. The team needs hope and courage, and Ja Morant precisely provided that by displaying a determined mindset at the post-game presser. He said:
\u201cWe will never play that bad again,\u201d instilling hopes among the Grizzlies squad and fans.<\/p>\n

Ja Morant talks GAME 1 LOSS vs OKC, FULL Postgame Interview<\/p>\n

When asked about his ankle injury, he kept his response straightforward and short, saying:
\u201cIt felt better. I was available,\u201d the Grizzlies’ primary leader said, avoiding discussing it much.<\/p>\n

Memphis Grizzlies\u2019 interim coach and shooting guard also made assuring comments about team\u2019s game plan<\/p>\n

The Memphis Grizzlies are managing with an interim coach, Tuomas Iisalo, who has a big responsibility on his shoulders to boost the team’s morale after back-to-back defeats. And, he performed the task brilliantly by taking an optimistic stance while addressing the press. He said:
\u201cAnd I’ve always thought in these situations, uh learned this as a as a younger player that there’s nothing we can do to change this result anymore.\u201d
He further said, \u201cSo all we can do is.. is try to learn from this and then apply it to the.. to the game um two days from now that’s all we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grizzlies Coach Iisalo: Learn From Loss, Dominate Next Game!<\/p>\n

The Grizzlies\u2019 shooting guard, Desmond Bane, refused to get bogged down by the glaring point difference. He tried to tone down the hoopla around the defeat.
\u201cYou got to turn the page fast,\u201d said Bane. He elaborated on the team\u2019s approach, saying:
\u201cDefinitely take the rest of this afternoon and kind of see what we could have done better, but at the end of the day, it’s one game. If we lose by 50 or lose on a buzzer-beater, the series is still 1-0. Not the result that we wanted for sure, but still got a good opportunity to get on the road here in two days.\u201d
Ja Morant and the boys struggled throughout the game as the Oklahoma City Thunder dominated them in all departments. Ja and the team have a mammoth task of keeping the momentum high and utilizing every opportunity to emerge stronger from disappointing Game 1 against the Thunder.
Also Read: \u201cI\u2019d be pissed too\u201d: Oklahoma City Thunder\u2019s insider comments on Memphis Grizzlies\u2019 Ja Morant\u2019s reaction as team records humiliating defeat in first playoff<\/a>
What do you think of the bold claim made by Ja Morant after the team\u2019s disappointing show against the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 1? Share in the comments.
Get the latest IPL 2025<\/a> updates on Times of India<\/a>, including match schedules<\/a>, team squads<\/a>, points table<\/a> and IPL live score<\/a> for CSK<\/a>, MI<\/a>, RCB<\/a>, KKR<\/a>, SRH<\/a>, LSG<\/a>, DC<\/a>, GT<\/a>, PBKS<\/a>, and RR<\/a>. Don’t miss the list of players in the race for IPL Orange Cap<\/a> and IPL Purple cap<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Memphis Grizzlies\u2019 Ja Morant makes a bold claim after a disappointing loss against Oklahoma City Thunder in Game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3795],"tags":[7,7593,294,7592,178,293,177,4070,6,11,179],"class_list":{"0":"post-22289","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-memphis-grizzlies","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-basketball-strategy","10":"tag-grizzlies","11":"tag-interim-coach-tuomas-iisalo","12":"tag-ja-morant","13":"tag-memphis","14":"tag-memphis-grizzlies","15":"tag-memphisgrizzlies","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-nba-playoffs","18":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114480682565838774","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}