Google News Stephen Curry praises Grizzlies, Ja Morant
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Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry showed respect to the entire Memphis Grizzlies team after their playoff series ended. On Friday night, Curry scored 29 points as the Warriors claimed a 110-96 win in San Francisco to close out the series and advance to the Western Conference finals.
"I have a lot of respect for every single guy on the team in terms of how they are built as a group, the individual talent," Curry said, per ESPN. "They have a lot of energy, a lot of potential in terms of winning at the highest level.
They were the higher seed for a reason. They had an amazing regular season and dominated throughout the course of those 82 games. For us to be able to come out of the series with a W, like there's definitely respect. There's definitely an understanding that they made us better; I'm sure we made them better."
Curry praises Ja Morant
Morant sustained a knee injury in Game 3 and he was out of the last three games of the series.
Morant was an MVP candidate this past season and he also won the Most Improved Player of the Year award. Morant finished the season with averages of 27.4 points, 5.7 rebounds and 6.7 assists. "His numbers are crazy," Curry said of Morant.
"The sky's the limit. Like I said, they are going to be around for a long time, fighting for Western Conference prowess. So we'll enjoy this and keep moving toward our goal, but you have to understand that they are going to be around for the long haul and he's a problem.
So definitely an amazing matchup, fun, entertaining, high-level basketball, all the antics and pettiness and all that stuff, I love all of it." Morant was putting up monster numbers in the series versus the Warriors before he went down injured.
In a Game 1 loss, Morant scored 34 points. In a Game 2 win, Morant exploded for 47 points. Morant had 34 points in Game 3 before he suffered a knee injury. After the series ended, Grizzlies guard Dillon Brooks said the outcome could have been different if they had Morant for the entire series.
"A hundred percent," Brooks said when asked if Morant's presence might have changed the outcomes of Game 4 or 6. "Ja is one of the best point guards in this league -- you guys know that -- obviously it would change, but we made do with what we had."