Warriors offense carves up Grizzlies on way to 30-point win; Ja Morant leaves with knee injury

Early in the fourth quarter, Warriors’ guard Jordan Poole scored on three consecutive trips down the court simply by blowing by his defender. They were almost straight-line drives to the rim with nobody there to challenge him (one dunk, one lay-up, and Poole was fouled on one).

That sequence summed up the night: The Warriors got the shots they wanted against far too little defensive resistance. That led the Warriors to shoot 53.1% on 3-pointers for the night, but the 62 points in the paint told the real story — Golden State worked inside out, knocked down their shots, and carved up the Grizzlies’ defense all night long.

Stephen Curry finished with 30 points on 14 shots, Poole had 27 off the bench, and the Warriors blew out the Grizzlies 142-112. Golden State takes a 2-1 series lead with the win; Game 4 is in San Francisco on Monday.

Ja Morant‘s status for that game is something to watch. He limped off the court in the middle of the fourth quarter after tweaking his knee against a Warriors double-team. There was no report on the condition of Morant’s knee after the game, he will be evaluated more on Sunday, but he left the arena without crutches or an apparent brace, but walking with a limp.

Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins said after the game the injury happened on this play.

This looks like the play Ja Morant got hurt. pic.twitter.com/J24ssu5i9P

— Drew Hill (@DrewHill_DM) May 8, 2022

The Grizzlies questioned if that was a dirty play — coming in a game their own Dillion Brooks was out for what was a dirty shot to the head of Gary Payton II — but Poole defended himself.

“It was a basketball play”

Poole responds to Ja's tweet saying he "broke the code" pic.twitter.com/YzcqujKIHi

— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) May 8, 2022