Point guards have long had the ball rolled to them in late game situations trying not to start the clock until the last possible moment to save as much time as possible, but in recent years it has become far more popular to do so in the middle of action to burn clock while the shot clock remains at :24.
Ja Morant does it as much as anyone, and on Wednesday he took it to a new level in the midst of a Grizzlies blowout of the Hornets in Charlotte. After a LaMelo Ball three made it a 96-67 Memphis lead in the third quarter, Morant had Jon Konchar drop the ball at his feet on the inbound and simply stood there over it as the clock ticked and ticked and ticked with no one from the Hornets coming to defend him. Eventually Terry Rozier would come force him to pick up the ball but not before 31 seconds worked off the clock from the time Ball’s three went through the rim.
In this game, it was more a merciful move than anything, as it got both teams a half minute closer to the final buzzer with the game already decided in the third. That said, it’s an incredibly funny visual of Ja standing by himself over the ball waiting to see how long he could get away with it, while the Charlotte crowd got increasingly mad at him for it.
