Ja Morant roasts Klay Thompson with ice-cold one-liner after heated clash

Ja Morant roasts Klay Thompson with ice-cold one-liner after heated clash originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Ja Morant didn't play Saturday night, but he made sure to stay on the front page following a tense on-court exchange with Mavericks sharpshooter Klay Thompson. The injured Grizzlies star didn't hesitate to offer Thompson a savage one-liner after Memphis beat Dallas 102-96.

Morant takes shot at Klay Thompson despite vintage performance

The verbal confrontation ignited right after the final buzzer. Players and coaches had to separate the two stars before things turned physical. Morant, who was making his presence known from the Grizzlies’ bench in casual dress, appeared to call Thompson “a bum” in the captured footage. The whole scene has since turned viral online.

Thompson actually balled out against the Grizzlies. He led the Mavericks with 22 points and six threes off the bench. The veteran looked like his old self, knocking down shots from everywhere.

As rookie guard Cooper Flagg was getting blocked every time by Grizzlies' big man, the former Warriors' guard came to his teammates' defense but couldn't turn his inner fire into a victory due to his last-minute fallout.

That one miss will haunt him every night for sure. At the end of the game, he attempted a three-pointer when there were just 17 seconds left on the clock. At that point, the Mavs left behind three points to tie the game. If the ball grabbed the net, then the Mavs could win the game. However, the shot ended otherwise.

Not surprisingly, that last-second fallout was enough to raise Morant's inner trash talker and pushed him to face Thomson after the final buzzer. Actually, he was already frustrated watching Thompson keep jawing at Memphis players throughout the fourth quarter.

Then Morant crashed Cam Spencer's postgame TV interview. "Tell 'em who the best shooter in the house was; it wasn't Bro from Golden State," Morant said. It was in every way a brutal shot at Tjompsn's capability.

Thompson also didn't hold back in his postgame presser. "With Ja, he's a funny guy. He has a lot to say all the time, especially for a guy that rarely takes accountability," Thompson told reporters.

Asked what Morant actually said to him, Thompson delivered the knockout punch, saying, "Nothing of intelligent depth.”

The on-court fireworks guarantee a must-watch round two. If Moant and Thompson both remain healthy for their next face-off, then more trash talk and bad blood are in store for the two teams' fan bases.

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