{"id":545520,"date":"2026-01-18T22:45:32","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T22:45:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/545520\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T22:45:32","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T22:45:32","slug":"tuomas-iisalo-couldnt-be-happier-to-see-dominant-ja-morant-again-vs-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/545520\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuomas Iisalo couldn&#8217;t be happier to see dominant Ja Morant again vs. Magic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/memphis-grizzlies\/grizzlies-news-ja-morant-london-ablaze-bonkers-half-injury-return-vs-magic\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Memphis Grizzlies got a big win on Sunday over the Orlando Magic<\/a>, in London. It was a return to form for Grizzlies star <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/players\/adc80918\/ja-morant\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ja Morant<\/a>, who returned to the lineup from a calf injury. Morant looked like he was back up to his old tricks, as he poured in 24 points for Memphis.<\/p>\n<p>Grizzlies head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/tag\/tuomas-iisalo\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tuomas Iisalo<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/DrewHill_DM\/status\/2012973587645218980\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">was happy to see<\/a> Morant play so well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo happy to have him back out there,\u201d Iisalo said, per The Daily Memphian.<\/p>\n<p>Memphis defeated Orlando, 126-109. Morant finished the game with a double-double, as he also dished out 13 assists. He looked dominant at times for the Grizzlies, who are now 18-23 on the campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Orlando dropped to 23-19 with the loss. The Magic were led in Sunday&#8217;s game by Anthony Black&#8217;s 19 points.<\/p>\n<p>Ja Morant&#8217;s days could be numbered with the Grizzlies<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3672208\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Grizzlies-Ja-Morant.jpg\" alt=\"Los Angeles Lakers guard Marcus Smart (36) defends Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant (12) as he drives to the basket in the second half at Crypto.com Arena.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\"  \/>\u00a9 Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>Morant has been the subject of trade buzz for quite some time. There were also <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/memphis-grizzlies\/grizzlies-news-ja-morant-said-teammate-heated-practice-argument\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reports that Morant argued with one of his teammates at a Grizzlies practice<\/a>. Following the Memphis win on Sunday, Morant <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TheSteinLine\/status\/2012985626732196261\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">addressed all those trade rumors<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf anybody here knows me, I\u2019m a very loyal guy,\u201d Morant said, per NBA correspondent Marc Stein.<\/p>\n<p>Time will tell if the Grizzlies move Morant. Memphis is struggling through a disappointing season. Morant has missed a lot of time, including six consecutive games due to a calf contusion. Grizzlies fans have to be excited to see him perform so well in London.<\/p>\n<p>Iisalo has also <a href=\"https:\/\/talksport.com\/basketball\/3911844\/ja-morant-return-memphis-grizzlies-orlando-magic-london\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">addressed the trade rumors<\/a> surrounding his star.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we are focused on the things that we can control,\u201d Iisalo said, per talkSPORT. \u201cThat&#8217;s one of the things with the NBA \u2013 there&#8217;s always going to be a lot of outside noise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Heading into the Magic game, Morant is averaging 19 points per game this season. While he was more dominant in the first half than the second, his play still helped lift Memphis to a victory over Orlando.<\/p>\n<p>The Grizzlies next play the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday. Memphis had lost seven of their last 10 games before defeating Orlando on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Memphis Grizzlies got a big win on Sunday over the Orlando Magic, in London. It was a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3779],"tags":[7,178,48,177,6,47,76,3883,1139],"class_list":{"0":"post-545520","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando-magic","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ja-morant","10":"tag-magic","11":"tag-memphis-grizzlies","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-orlando","14":"tag-orlando-magic","15":"tag-orlandomagic","16":"tag-tuomas-iisalo"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115918532631112952","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545520","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=545520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}