MEMPHIS, Tenn. _ The Nets have been nothing if not exciting in three games, but they are having trouble closing the show. For the third straight game, they squandered a fourth-quarter lead. Ja Morant scored eight of the Grizzlies' last 10 points in regulation, blocked a shot by Kyrie Irving at the buzzer and then fed Jae Crowder for a buzzer-beating three-pointer at the end of a 134-133 overtime victory over the Nets Sunday night at FedEx Forum.
A pair of layups by No. 2 overall rookie draft pick Morant to open the fourth period pulled the Grizzlies within one point and served as a reminder of how the Nets blew fourth-quarter leads in the first two games. When Morant drained a three at the 7:51 mark, the Grizzlies were back in front briefly at 105-104. The Nets regained the lead on a bucket by Caris LeVert just before Irving returned to action with 6:39 left.
Nets coach Kenny Atkinson altered his approach by going with a three-guard backcourt of Irving, LeVert and Spencer Dinwiddie down the stretch. After going down 110-108 on a Brandon Clarke dunk at 5:00, the Nets went on a 10-0 surge, including five points each by LeVert and Irving to take their biggest lead at 118-110 on Irving's corner three with 3:20 to go.
But the kid Morant wasn't done. He scored six straight points to make it a two-point game at 2:17. He was on a roll. Morant tied it at 120 on a layup with 7.0 seconds left in regulation and then blocked Irving to send it to overtime.
The game was tied four times in OT before a three by Jae Crowder, his first points of the game, gave the Grizzlies a 131-128 lead at 1:09. The Nets regained a 132-131 lead on a Joe Harris tip-in with 27.9 seconds left. Morant committed a turnover on an inbounds pass with 8.1 seconds left, and Dinwiddie was fouled but only made the first of two. The Nets fouled to force an inbounds play at 3.7 seconds. Morant drove into traffic at the top of the arc, turned and flipped to Crowder, whose game-winner dropped at the buzzer.
Irving led the Nets (1-2) with 37 points, and LeVert added 27. Morant topped the Grizzlies (1-2) with 30 points and nine assists, and Dillon Brooks had 21 points.
Irving has put on quite a show as a Net, but as a group, they still are getting used to playing with such a dominant scorer. Atkinson admitted before the game that working with Irving has been a revelation.
"Speed and aggressiveness," Atkinson said. "He's got a football player mentality. He's an attack, downhill player and that obviously fits perfectly with how we play."
During one stretch of the first quarter, Irving just took over, scoring 12 of 15 Nets points as they tied the game at 24 before Irving left at the 3:34 mark. But the offense struggled without him on the floor, failing to score 12 times in 13 possessions spanning the first and second quarters. Irving only took part in one of those at the end of the first period.
The Grizzlies put together a 19-3 run during that segment of the game to take their biggest first-half lead at 45-31. LeVert, who has been spending a lot of time working with the second unit when Atkinson juggles his rotation after the first five minutes, by scoring seven of 10 Nets points to cut the deficit to six. The Nets were ice cold from three-point range but got trio of threes late in the second period, two from Dinwiddie and one from Harris as the Nets trimmed the Grizzlies' halftime lead to 59-57. At that point, the Nets were shooting just 38.5 percent.
The Nets regained a measure of control with a 12-2 surge early in the third quarter that ended with an Irving three for a 71-65 lead that was their biggest to that point. They got to the end of the period still clinging to a 97-92 advantage.
