By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Ja Morant broke the hearts of the Minnesota Timberwolves after draining the game-winning leftie layup, 111-109, in Game 5 of their Western Conference clash to help the Memphis Grizzlies take a 3-2 series lead while the tough Miami Heat shut down Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks, 97-94, to clinch an early Eastern Conference semifinals spot.
No lead is safe against the Memphis Grizzlies after they came back from another double-digit deficit and turned the tables during the pivotal Game 5 showdown.
Despite taking an early 13-2 lead, Minnesota was quick to storm back and regain their shooting rhythm to completely take control of the first three quarters.
Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards were all over the place and delivered the early offensive punch for the young Timberwolves team that helped them establish a 13-point lead in the third quarter.
Minnesota maintained their 13-point lead up to the first three minutes of the final canto before Morant and the rest of the Grizzlies went berserk to cap off a 37-point fourth quarter.
Towns gave the Timberwolves an extra four-point cushion with 1:45 left in the game, 106-102, after draining a three-point bomb but Memphis responded with five-straight points to finally take the lead, 107-106.
D’ Angelo Russell tried to give Minnesota the lead but his isolation jump shot missed badly and gave Memphis 11 more seconds to operate offensively. During the sequence, Morant was fouled and sank all his shots from the charity stripe to extend their lead to three, 109-106.
However, Minnesota couldn’t be denied after Edwards tied the game with his right-corner trey, 109-all, which forced Memphis to burn another timeout and design one last offensive play.
Dillion Brooks then assisted the game-winning play with 3.7 seconds left after passing the ball to a curling Morant who skied for the acrobatic leftie layup and became the icing on the cake that sealed the deal for Memphis.
Meanwhile, in the Eastern Conference, the Miami Heat nipped the Atlanta Hawks despite the absence of Jimmy Butler and earned the second semifinals seat after the Boston Celtics.
For the fifth-straight game, the physical and patient Miami defense negated the offensive prowess of Hawks’ Trae Young who became a non-factor in the series and only scored 11 points in the elimination game.
Miami’s balanced attack became the main difference with five players scoring double-digits: Max Strus with 15, Bam Adebayo with 20, Victor Oladipo with 23, Tyler Herro with 16, and Caleb Martin with 10.
Atlanta showed some fight and resiliency in the last two minutes of the game after trimming Miami’s lead to just a single digit after back-to-back three-pointers from De’Andre Hunter who led his team and all scorers with 35 big points.
However, Miami still found a way to eke out the win and will set up a highly-anticipated clash between the winner of the Philadelphia 76ers-Toronto Raptors series.
