Grizzlies’ Ja Morant outsmarts everyone, wastes 27 seconds of clock in peculiar fashion

The Memphis Grizzlies were up 29 points with about three and a half minutes left in the third quarter on Wednesday night, and they were ready to start wasting as much clock as possible.

Bring in Ja Morant to do the job.

After LaMelo Ball hit a three for the Charlotte Hornets, the Grizzlies inbounded the ball, but the ball rolled along the court with no one but Morant near it, who apparently knows the rule book quite well.

Referees do not start a countdown for eight-second violations until the ball is touched — but the game clock was still going.

So, Morant didn’t even bother to touch the live ball, and he wasted close to half a minute of time in the game without any sort of penalty.

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“You can do this,” one broadcaster for the Hornets said. “The ball hasn’t been touched. He theoretically could do this until midnight tonight.”

As Morant stood over the ball, Hornets coaches were adamant that somebody approach him. Hornets’ Terry Rozier finally made his way to play defense, so Morant finally picked it up.

Memphis eventually won, 131-107, marking their fourth straight victory. They improved to 24-13 on the season, tied for the No. 1 spot in the west with the Denver Nuggets.