Ja Morant Sends Message To Lakers, LeBron James After Back-And-Forth During Grizzlies' Win

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There is no love lost between the Memphis Grizzlies and Los Angeles Lakers, Ja Morant made that abundantly clear after leading the Grizz to a win over LeBron James' squad on Wednesday night.

Things got heated between the two stars in Memphis when Morant pulled an and-one finish after backing down Gabe Vincent in the post. After getting the bucket, Morant did the ‘too small’ gesture, letting Vincent know how he feels about his defending. Shortly after, James backed Morant down in the paint, and while Morant tried to draw an offensive foul, James ultimately scored an uncontested bucket and gave the ‘too small' gesture right back at him.

For a regular season NBA game in November, the back-and-forth was really entertaining.

Morant ultimately left the game after picking up an injury on a failed alley-oop attempt, but spoke with the media after Memphis' win and was asked about the chirping with James.

After claiming James should have been called for an offensive foul on the play, Morant took an opportunity to send a message to the Lakers.

"Top dog in our league. You take out the top dog, who else you fear? I don’t fear nobody, anyway," Morant explained. "I ain’t have to get up. I ain’t been down.

"They beat us last time. I didn’t get to play, like I said, last year. They came on our home floor, beat us on our home floor, was laughing, playing, looking at me talking. My message was I was in street clothes. This is my first opportunity to get back on the floor playing against them."

"I don't like them," Morant added.

As Morant alluded to, the Lakers got the best of Memphis during the 2023 playoffs in six games and it's clear that was on his mind heading into their first regular season matchup against LA this season. 

After Morant missed a huge chunk of last season with an injury, there is no doubt he had this matchup with the Lakers circled when the schedule came out. LeBron and the Lakers will get a shot at getting revenge against Memphis in just a week's time when the Grizzlies visit Los Angeles on November 13.

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the world of professional golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.