"You see him blossoming in front of our eyes" - Kevin Durant gives thoughtful and generous response when asked about Ja Morant's player development

Round one of the Kevin Durant versus Ja Morant matchup has gone in the latter's favor. Morant had 36 points, six rebounds and eight assists as the Memphis Grizzlies came to Brooklyn on Monday and handed the Nets their third straight loss. Morant shot 14-of-22 from the floor as the Grizzlies rolled to an impressive 118-104 road victory even as Kevin Durant was limited to 26 points on 8-of-24 shooting (33.3%).

This was Ja Morant's fourth successive 30-point outing. He had 33 points in a win against Phoenix on December 27, 41 against the LA Lakers on December 29 and 30 points against the San Antonio Spurs on December 31. The Grizzlies have won all four contests, including their latest against the Brooklyn Nets.

Commenting on Ja Morant's impressive growth as a basketball player, Kevin Durant did not hold back. The Brooklyn Nets superstar offered good insight into what makes Morant a special talent for the future. Durant told reporters about Ja Morant:

"He's just controlling the games. Always been an efficient player who can run the point guard spot. He's developed into a major scorer as well. He just plays with great pace out there, plays with joy and enthusiasm. You see him blossoming in front of our eyes. Since college he has been on this trajectory. As a basketball fan, you can't wait to see what it's like years going forward."

Ja Morant has 18-point third quarter versus Brooklyn Nets

The Memphis Grizzlies superstar point guard torched the Brooklyn Nets with 18 points in the 12-minute period immediately after half-time. Ja Morant had 15 points in the first half, but had his most explosive scoring stretch in the third quarter. Riding on his 18-point outburst, the Grizzlies outscored Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets 40-26 in the third period. With Memphis increasing their lead to 23 points at the end of the third quarter, the game was all but over at the start of the fourth.

Brooklyn Nets head coach Steve Nash attributed the deflating loss to the Memphis Grizzlies to the team's defense and the fact that the Nets have had to deal with a lot of their players entering health and safety protocols. Nash said:

"I think it's defense. Our defense hasn't been great. Tonight it was more so the finishing possessions with offensive rebounds but our defense can improve. And part of it is we can't panic. It's been a crazy period where we had 80 or 90 percent of our team get COVID. We transitioned through that. We are coming out of that. It was just a big stop to the momentum of the season. But let's not overreact. But that was embarrassing tonight. We got our butts kicked. We got to do a lot better to get back to the standard that we played at before the interruption."