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Grading Ja Morant's best dunks, highlights from 2023 NBA All-Star Game

evan barnes, memphis commercial appeal
·2 min read
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Ja Morant said Saturday that he wasn't interested in doing the slam dunk contest at NBA All-Star weekend. It's not a surprise since Morant's turned it down in each of his four seasons.

But the Memphis Grizzlies guard saved some highlights for Sunday's All-Star game. We graded in real time what Morant did in Salt Lake City as he had a few highlights in Salt Lake City.

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First quarter

Morant's first basket Sunday was a solid two-handed dunk down the lane. Call it a warm-up for what came later in the period. Not bad, but nothing different from players lightly dunking without any resistance in the game.

Grade: 7 out of 10

This was the one. Morant had double-clutch reverse dunk for his second basket of the game. It was pretty incredible, although TNT analyst Shaquille O'Neal gave him an 8 like he was grading it for the dunk contest.

The dunk was much better than that, honestly. If that was in Saturday's dunk contest, it'd be at minimum 48 out of 50, if not higher

Grade: 10 out of 10

Second quarter

Morant makes 360-degree dunks look easy sometimes and this one was no different. It was even more fun because he blew by teammate Jaren Jackson Jr., who defended him as soon as he got the inbounds pass.

It wasn't the power of his first dunk but you had to smile with Morant since he and Jackson joked about what could happen if they were on different teams. It wasn't a Grizzlies-on-Grizzlies poster dunk but with Morant, he made up for it with style and grace.

Grade: 8 of 10

Morant didn't score in the second half and was content to play facilitator instead of look for his shot. But he reminded the crowd why he's one of the most electrifying players in the league and even with just three dunks, he did enough to solidify his reputation.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Grading Ja Morant's best dunks, highlights from NBA All-Star Game 2023