CHICAGO — Ja Morant spun and flipped in an over-the-shoulder layup. He threw down a vicious alley-oop dunk.
The Memphis Grizzlies‘ All-Star guard put on quite a display for the Chicago crowd and might have gotten a little extra lift after seeing highlights of Michael Jordan on the video board.
Morant scored a regular-season franchise-record 46 points, and the Grizzlies hung on to beat DeMar DeRozan and the Chicago Bulls 116-110 on Saturday night.
“I did watch it,” Morant said. “And then, I did start scoring a lot. It probably played a part in it.”
Morant broke Mike Miller‘s previous record (45 points) set in 2007. Morant also set the overall franchise mark for points in the playoffs last season, when he scored 47 in a Game 2 loss to the Utah Jazz.
The Grizzlies on Saturday let a 17-point lead shrink to one before squeezing it out after losing two in a row. They also stopped Chicago’s six-game winning streak.
Morant scored 16 in the first half and 20 in the third quarter. He made 15 of 28 shots, including three 3-pointers, and was 13-for-15 at the foul line.
“I’ve seen too many of them. Kinda boring now,” Memphis center Steven Adams said in jest of Morant’s highlight plays. “He’s such an amazing player.”
Adams added 12 points and a season-high 21 rebounds, and the Grizzlies frustrated DeRozan even though the five-time All-Star scored 31 points — giving him 10 straight 30-point games.
That’s the longest such streak by a Bulls player since Jordan did it in 10 straight from Dec. 25, 1990, to Jan. 14, 1991. But DeRozan was just 10-of-29 from the field, ending his NBA-record run of eight games of scoring at least 35 while shooting 50% or better, and was ejected in the closing seconds.
“As remarkable as he has been, he did not have a great shooting night,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said of DeRozan. “I thought early in the game, he got fouled really, really quite a bit, and he should have been to the foul line. I have not watched the film. That’s just going from my eyes watching the game on some downhill plays. Who knows what the game’s like for him if he gets four quick free throws or some of those plays are called differently.”
Zach LaVine scored 28 points for the Bulls in his second game back after missing the final three prior to the All-Star break because of his ailing left knee.
Memphis led by 17 in the third, with Morant going off in the quarter. He made 6 of 7 shots, including a 3 and a soaring alley-oop dunk near the end of the period.
It was a 16-point game early in the fourth when the Bulls reeled off a 14-0 run, with DeRozan hitting two free throws to cut it to 101-99 with 4:38 remaining.
Chicago’s Coby White made it 106-105 when he nailed a 3 with about 2:30 remaining. Morant then hit two free throws, before DeRozan drove for a layup.
Grizzlies guard Desmond Bane hit a 3 to bump the lead to 111-107. The Bulls’ Nikola Vucevic made a foul shot, and Bane and Morant missed jumpers, before LaVine hit two free throws to cut the deficit to 111-110 with 25.5 seconds remaining.
Tyus Jones then hit a pair of free throws for Memphis to make it a three-point game with 14.9 seconds left. At that point, the Bulls opted to attack the rim rather than try a 3, with a timeout in their pocket. But DeRozan missed in the lane, argued a non-call and picked up his second technical foul after getting one earlier in the game, earning an ejection.
Morant, who got fouled by LaVine in the scramble, then made the technical free throw and two more foul shots with 5.3 seconds remaining for the contest’s final points.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.