The Memphis Grizzlies have been an interesting franchise in the last few seasons. They were bad enough to select Ja Morant with the second overall pick in 2019 before making the playoffs with him for the first time two seasons later. Then, the Grizzlies were the second seed in each of the next two seasons, but went 31-15 without him across those campaigns. But in 2023-24, Morant proved his worth, as he played just nine games and Memphis tumbled all the way to 13th in the West.
This season has been the epitome of Morant’s highs and lows. He’s appeared in just 46 of the team’s 76 games, and the Grizzlies have still gone a solid 16-14 with him out. Memphis held the West’s second seed for a while, but it has since tumbled all the way down to eighth and firing Taylor Jenkins for Tuomas Iisalo hasn’t appeared to change anything so far.
Morant and the Grizzlies will hope to stop their four-game skid against the suddenly-hot Miami Heat, who enter the 7:30 p.m. matchup in South Beach on a six-game winning streak.
On DraftKings Sportsbook, Memphis is a 5.5-point favorite and the total is set for 225. Below, I’ve laid out my favorite prop bets centered around Morant.
Best Ja Morant Prop Bets on DraftKings Sportsbook
Ja Morant O24.5 Points (-110)
Miami had been struggling even more than the Grizzlies have, but six games ago, the Heat turned a switch. They had just come off of a 10-game losing streak, the longest such run of futility under head coach Erik Spoelstra, but beginning with a 122-105 victory over the woeful Charlotte Hornets on March 23, everything has changed. Miami has since rattled off six straight wins, including that win over the Hornets, punctuating its streak with a 124-103 victory over the Boston Celtics last night. The Heat’s first five wins were against eminently beatable opponents, but the margins haven’t even been close. In that six-game stretch, Miami has outscored opponents by 22.0 points per 100 possessions, 5.3 points better than the Oklahoma City Thunder’s second-place mark.
But as hot as the Heat have been, Morant has been hotter. He averaged 29.5 points per game in March, posting a 32.9% usage rate, the sixth-highest among 226 players to play at least 250 total minutes throughout the month. His stats were partially boosted by a five-game stretch in which co-star Jaren Jackson Jr. sat out with a sprained ankle — averaging 28.8 points across that stretch — but in the four games he’s played since Jackson’s return, he’s posted 32.0 points per game on fairly efficient shooting splits. The last time he scored fewer than 20 points came on February 20, and he’s reached the 25-point threshold in seven of his 14 games since the All-Star break.
Ja Morant O4.5 Rebounds (-105)
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Morant’s rebounding potential would be hurt by Jackson’s presence, given that Jackson is a six-foot-10 big who has operated primarily at the center position this season and is one of the league’s best rim protectors. Interestingly, though, since Jackson’s return from injury, Morant has nabbed 6.3 boards per game, including three games in which he snagged five or more, 1.3 more than Jackson across the same stretch. The sample size is small, thanks to the shoulder and hamstring injuries that held him out for six games, but the Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, and Cleveland Cavaliers are good rebounding teams, so his big totals are somewhat convincing.
It’s true that across its six-game winning streak, Miami has controlled the boards extremely well, allowing the fewest rebounds and fourth-fewest points in the paint, but it has still allowed the 14th-most second-chance points, so it’s definitely not as airtight as it seems at first glance. Also, the teams that the Heat beat tend to be poor rebounding units, with every team except Boston ranking 14th or worse in rebounds allowed. I’ll need to see another stellar performance on the glass against a good rebounding team before I stop being concerned about their lack of size.
