“Go ask the coaching staff,” said a visibly annoyed Ja Morant when asked what went wrong for him in the Memphis Grizzlies’ 117-112 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night.

“Go ask them. ... They had a whole spiel in here,” said Morant, motioning to the locker room.

Morant had just scored 8 points, shooting 3 for 14 from the floor and going scoreless in the second half, as Lakers star Luka Doncic scored 44 points. 

Lakers pull ahead of Grizzlies in fourth behind Doncic

Asked what the team could have done better, Morant said, “according to them, probably don’t play me, honestly. That’s what basically the message was after. It’s cool.”

But the media covering the game did not have a chance to take Morant up on his request to ask the coaching staff.

Morant’s locker-room availability coincided with head coach Tuomas Iisalo’s postgame availability, where Iisalo entered a media room without media and ended his session before reporters returned from the locker room. 

In the fourth quarter, as Morant stood at the scorer’s table to check in, a fan yelled at him, “Time to call 12,” a reference to No. 12 Morant’s frequent clutch heroics. 

Morant frowned at the fan and said something inaudible. 

It was a game in which Morant often settled for jump shots (0-6 from 3-point range) and seemed to spend an unusual amount of time off the ball. 

Asked about not seeming to have his usual energy, Morant said, “Go ask the coaching staff why.”

Morant said his play was not impacted by illness or injury.

“Oh no, I’m ready,” he said. “I’m fine.” 

The Grizzlies, who moved to 3-3 with the loss, had just won a road game in Phoenix. Since the end of last season, Morant had been vocally supportive, on several occasions, of Iisalo, including during the team’s season-opening three-game homestand. 

Box score: Lakers 117, Grizzlies 112

No other Grizzlies players addressed the postgame locker-room interaction referenced by Morant.

What the fallout will be was anyone’s guess late Friday night. But the Grizzlies won’t be able to stay silent for long. The team plays its next game Sunday in Toronto, before returning for a four-game homestand that begins Monday night against the Detroit Pistons. 

The game

It was a Halloween-night game broadcast on a national streaming service (Prime Video) with the league’s highest-profile franchise (the Lakers) making their only trip to town. It was also an NBA Cup game, the start of the league’s “in-season tournament” for this 2025-26 campaign. 

It was also a competitive game, with each team making a run and taking a double-digit lead before finally settling with a final score of 117-112.

What happened after the game quickly overshadowed what happened during it, but while Morant’s game seemed off, his postgame remarks still came as a surprise. 

While Iisalo exited the media room just as reporters were returning from interviewing Morant, he was asked for his general impression of the game by a Grizzlies communications staffer.

“I thought we had a tremendous first half,” Iisalo said. “Really great effort, especially in the second quarter.

“I think we had a 31-9 run in the last seven minutes, really sparked by our bench being disruptive, finding the open guy, sharing the ball, really nice sequences. Second half wasn’t more of the same. We were a little flat there.”

And the Lakers weren’t. Doncic came out flaming.

After the Grizzlies took a 69-55 lead into the half, Doncic immediately got the Lakers back in it, scoring 16 of his 44 points in the third quarter. 

Just a couple of days earlier, Doncic’s presence seemed doubtful. He didn’t travel to the Lakers’ previous game, on Wednesday in Minnesota, due to finger and leg injuries, but joined the team in Memphis, where his status was upgraded from “questionable” to “probable” throughout the day. 

Morant’s buzzer beater carries Grizzlies over Suns

With Vince Williams Jr. making his season debut for the Grizzlies, the team had four good defensive options to throw at Doncic and recently red-hot backcourt mate Austin Reaves: Williams, Jaylen Wells, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and rookie Cedric Coward. 

They each had their moments, but Doncic and Reaves (21 points) had more. 

The Grizzlies stayed in the game by stacking possessions, with eight more offensive rebounds and four fewer turnovers, and with better bench play. But the Grizzlies stars couldn’t match their Laker counterparts, even with LeBron James (sciatica) missing the game. 

Morant was the only Grizzlies starter who scored in single digits, but co-star Jaren Jackson Jr. managed only eight field goal attempts, making six for 15 points. The Grizzlies were co-led in scoring, at 16 each, by the unlikely duo of starters Jaylen Wells and Jock Landale

Drinking from the NBA Cup

Across the league, Halloween games marked the beginning of the NBA Cup, the in-season tournament first introduced in 2023. 

The “group play” stage of the tournament will occur through the end of November, with each team playing one game against each of the other four teams in their group. The Grizzlies are in West Group B, along with the Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, Dallas Mavericks and New Orleans Pelicans. 

At the end of group play, the six group winners and one wild card team from each conference will advance to the elimination, or “knockout” rounds, with semifinals and finals happening in Las Vegas in mid-December. 

One wrinkle in NBA Cup games is that point differential serves as a second tiebreaker for advancement, after head-to-head games. 

The rest of the Grizzlies’ NBA Cup group-play games: 

• Friday, Nov. 7 — vs. Dallas
• Wednesday, Nov. 26 — at New Orleans
• Friday, Nov. 28 — at L.A. Clippers

The Grizzlies have so far struggled in the tournament, going 1-7 in Cup play over the past two seasons, now 1-8 with Friday night’s loss to the Lakers. 

Box-score bits

Rookie Cedric Coward had his first game shooting below 50% but also his first career double-double. He finished with 13 points on 4-for-11 shooting and 10 rebounds, 

Vince Williams Jr. made his season debut, playing in a rotation spot previously manned by rookie Javon Small. Williams had seven points and three assists, shooting 3 for 9. He played 17 minutes.

Former Grizzlies Marcus Smart (12 points) and Jake LaRavia (13 points) each made their first returns to FedEdForum since being traded by the Grizzlies this past February. Each spoke at Lakers shootaround earlier in the day. 

Up next

The Grizzlies are back on the road for a one-game trip to Toronto, facing the Raptors on Sunday (5 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network).