Ja Morant (predictably) wanted the smoke during his team’s game earlier this week.
On Sunday, the Memphis Grizzlies faced off against the Portland Trail Blazers. In the third quarter at FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tenn., Blazers forward Deni Avdija hit the deck and then appeared to intentionally trip Grizzlies guard Cedric Coward as Coward was trying to run back up the floor. Here is the video.
While on the ground, Deni Avdija locks his legs to trip Cedric Coward, who falls. Coward, still in the play, recovers and lobs the ball ahead to Jaylen Wells for a transition dunk pic.twitter.com/RvjzdGd8Fy
— MrBuckBuck (@MrBuckBuckNBA) December 8, 2025
As the two teams then headed to a timeout, Grizzlies star Ja Morant, who was in street clothes and not playing due to a calf strain, was seen going over to Avdija and confronting him about the trip. The two exchanged some heated words before being separated by officials and staffers.
You can see the video of the Morant-Avdija confrontation at the link here.
The Grizzlies went on to win Sunday’s game by a 119-96 blowout final. While the officials missed Avdija’s trip of Coward on the spot, the NBA announced Monday that they were giving Avdija a retroactive flagrant 1 foul upon league review of the incident.
Morant, the two-time All-Star, has not played at all for Memphis since Nov. 15 thanks to his calf injury. But he clearly doesn’t mind mixing it up with opponents from the bench and also had a heated confrontation with Klay Thompson of the Dallas Mavericks a couple of weeks prior.
