Ja Morant "felt terrible" and knew he needed to act after a young Memphis Grizzlies fan had her signed basketball stolen.
Morant came good on Wednesday when he presented 11-year-old Ellie Hughes with a signed shirt and as of yet unreleased Nike Ja 1 shoes, saying he hoped it offset the pain she felt after the "unacceptable" swiping of her ball.
Youngster Hughes, who reports said has not missed a Grizzlies home game in six years, had been collecting signatures on a team ball.
It was taken during Monday's win over the San Antonio Spurs, which prompted Morant to act, knowing he could make the situation better.
He said: "Obviously I feel like I come from a good home with great parents, and it's pretty much something I love to do.
"You've touched a mighty heart like that, a big fan of the Grizzlies for years. It's moments like that, that mean the most to them, something they'll never forget, something they'll remember the rest of their life.
"It's not a lot of people who've got a game-worn signed Ja jersey and there's definitely not a lot of people who have signed Ja 1s.
"After seeing what happened to them on social media, I just felt terrible. Obviously it's been years she had that ball, and had the opportunity to get autographs of great players, and to have that taken away from her, I feel it was unacceptable.
"I tried to get in contact with the family, I reached out and offered them two of my courtside seats and told them after the game I would give them my jersey and shoes, so definitely a good feeling to have them there supporting us and see the smile on their face out there."
Morant was on top form as the Grizzlies toppled the Spurs again on Wednesday, scoring 38 points in a 135-129 win.
The Grizzlies are flying high, sitting second in the Western Conference with the same 28-13 record as leaders the Denver Nuggets.
Despite their strong season, Morant says there remains room for improvement, pointing to occasional "mental lapses" and saying Memphis "need to be a little more locked in and paying attention to detail".
"Fatigue can play a part," the 23-year-old added, demanding constant focus. "I feel like if we want to be a great team, no matter what, we have to do that day in and day out, for 48 minutes.
"That's pretty much really just the area I think we can get better."
Bones Hyland spoke of building "championship habits" and hailed the latest Nikola Jokic masterclass after the Denver Nuggets savaged the Phoenix Suns at Ball Arena.
A 12th straight home victory for Denver, and a fourth successive win overall, kept the team top of the Western Conference, with the 126-97 margin reflecting a strong night's work.
Jokic fell just short of a 12th triple-double of the season, finishing with 21 points, 18 rebounds and nine assists.
Jamal Murray added 16 points, with Hyland contributing 21 for the Nuggets.
Hyland said of Jokic, who is making a strong case for a third MVP in a row: "Everybody in the world knows when he gets the ball and you go for a rebound, he's the greatest passer in the world, so when he gets the ball we just run.
"Ninety per cent of the time he's gonna make the right pass so when he's got it we run."
Hyland added after Wednesday's rout, according to the Denver Post: "I was really just feeling it. The basket felt like it was really wide. It was like shooting a rock into the ocean."
Speaking to Altitude TV in an on-court interview, Hyland said: "It's a night when we're playing our game.
"We've got a lot of dynamic players on our team, a lot of good shooters, so it's proving it in the season. We've got to focus on what we've got to focus on, build championship habits and just come out here and get a win."
Guard Murray suffered a left ankle problem late in the game, but coach Michael Malone does not expect him to miss any games.
Malone was impressed with the team's efforts and called for them to sustain a high level.
"Your home court has to have an advantage," Malone said. "Our fans have been terrific, and I just love how we’re playing. Once again, a good defensive performance that leads to our offense.
"We had 24 fast break points tonight to their six, we had 30 assists to only 11 turnovers. But the beginning of that is when we defend, and everything just flows from there.
"So hopefully we can continue to protect this home court at a high level through the regular season and into the playoffs."
The Miami Heat suspended Dewayne Dedmon for one game without pay after the outburst where he swatted a massage gun on to the court in Tuesday's 112-111 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Dedmon reacted angrily after being subbed out of the game, exchanging words with coaches, before storming off and flinging a massage gun back on to the court during play. The reserve center was ejected by officials for that act.
The Heat announced on Wednesday that in consultation with the NBA they had decided Dedmon would be banned for one game for "conduct detrimental to the team".
Miami head coach Erik Spoelstra had labelled the outburst as "unacceptable" after Tuesday's game.
"It's the Miami Heat. We're all a bunch of gnarly personalities," Spoelstra said.
"That part was unfortunate. Everything before that, that's the Miami Heat. That part was unacceptable."
Jaylen Brown scored a season-high 41 points and Jayson Tatum added 31 as the Boston Celtics claimed their fourth successive win with a 125-114 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday.
Brown recorded his first double-double in a half in his career with 18 points and 10 rebounds, while he added another 18 points in the third quarter.
The Celtics guard shot 15-of-21 from the field with three-of-six from three-point range along with 12 rebounds for the game.
Tatum went 10-of-22 from the field with 10 rebounds and four assists, with Malcolm Brogdon adding 20 points off the bench.
The game marked the seventh time this season that Brown and Tatum have scored at least 30 points each, which is joint for the most before February by two players from the same team in the last 40 seasons.
The other duos to have managed that are Golden State's Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant in 2018-19 and Denver's Alex English and Kiki Vandeweghe in 1983-84.
The result improves the Celtics to 30-12 overall and 17-5 at the TD Garden, while the Pelicans lose ground on the top two in the west, falling to 25-17.
C.J. McCollum scored 38 points for the Pels, marking the first time in his career he had 20-plus points in a first half in consecutive games.
Jokic falls short of triple-double as Nuggets triumph
Nikola Jokic fell one assist short of a 12th triple-double of the season as the Western Conference-leading Denver Nuggets claimed their fourth straight win, 126-97 over the Phoenix Suns.
The reigning back-to-back NBA MVP Jokic finished with 21 points, 18 rebounds and nine assists, including a brilliant first-quarter look-away fling to Aaron Gordon.
Jamal Murray added 16 points, although he picked up an ankle complaint, while Bones Hyland contributed 21 for the Nuggets, who have claimed 11 wins in a row at home, along with winning 14 of their past 17.
Grizzlies secure eighth straight win
Ja Morant led the way as the Memphis Grizzlies secured an eighth consecutive victory to keep pressure on the Nuggets at the top of the west with a 135-129 win over the San Antonio Spurs.
Morant scored 21 points in the first half, finishing the game with 38 along with five rebounds and four assists.
The Grizzlies guard also produced a big dunk over Jakob Poeltl in the third quarter, while his put-back with 24.1 seconds left in the fourth sealed the victory.
Kevin Durant's absence cannot be used as an excuse by the Brooklyn Nets, insists head coach Jacque Vaughn.
Durant sprained the medial collateral ligament (MCL) in his right knee in the third quarter of the Nets' 102-101 win over the Miami Heat on Sunday, with reports suggesting he could be sidelined for around a month.
Brooklyn confirmed the result of scans a day later, saying the 12-time NBA All-Star would be "reevaluated in two weeks."
Durant is averaging 29.7 points, 6.7 rebounds and 5.3 assists this season.
Vaughn does not want his players to dwell on being without their star player, though, as they look to build on a fine record of 27-13, including a run of 18 wins from their last 20 games that sees them sit second in the Eastern Conference.
"That's the biggest thing. I'm not giving this group a chance to make excuses," he said on Wednesday.
"Here to play. Here to win. Here to compete. It doesn't change. Love them."
Brooklyn host the only team in the league with a better record than them, the Boston Celtics, on Thursday.
Klay Thompson suggested the Golden State Warriors paid the price for thinking "we'd just get the dub" as Stephen Curry returned from injury against the Phoenix Suns.
Curry missed 11 games with a shoulder injury but was back in the lineup on Tuesday alongside Andrew Wiggins, who had returned in the Warriors' previous outing after 15 games on the sideline.
However, the Suns defeated the NBA champions 125-113 after building a big halftime lead.
Complacency was an issue, according to Thompson, whose 29 points led Golden State.
"I think with Steph and [Wiggins] back, we probably relaxed a bit more than we should have," he said.
"We thought with them showing up, we'd just get the dub."
The loss was the Warriors' third in a row after a run of five straight wins appeared to have got their season back on track.
At the halfway mark in the campaign, Golden State are eighth in the West with a losing 20-21 record.
"We've been talking about it for a long time," said Curry. "Eventually, you have to do it or else time runs out.
"We have 41 games to figure it out – or else we won't."
There was at least cause for optimism in the fourth quarter, in which Curry, playing with a shooting sleeve on his left arm, scored 16 of his 24 points.
"It's hit or miss with how much rust you will have and how close you can get to the speed of the game," Curry explained. "The first quarter, it felt good just to be out there, running with our guys.
"I felt like I got stronger as the game went on. In the fourth, the intensity of the game picked up. We were playing very desperately trying to come back and make some plays. I felt like myself again."
Coach Steve Kerr added: "I'm hoping that fourth quarter was the team that I have come to know and love and recognise.
"But we have to show in the first quarter, not in the fourth quarter."
Jimmy Butler had "no idea" the Miami Heat had broken the NBA record for the most free throws in a game without a miss.
The Heat edged out the Oklahoma City Thunder 112-111 on Tuesday, with Butler scoring a game-leading 35 points and going 23-of-23 from the free-throw line.
That means Butler was just one short of James Harden's league record of 24-of-24 free throws, set in December 2019, for the most in one game without a miss.
Butler was not the only Heat player on top form from the line, with the rest of the team shooting 17-of-17, breaking the team record of 39-for-39 made by the Utah Jazz against the Portland Trail Blazers in 1982.
Yet Butler had no clue the Heat were setting a record, with his sole focus on Miami's fightback - they trailed 111-106 heading into the final minute but came out on top in the closing seconds.
"I had no idea," Butler told reporters about the 40 free-throw feat. "I'm more excited that we won this game by one point."
"We won. A complete team effort. I'm proud of my guys. We always talk about finding a way to win. This is a good start to that. Whatever it takes to win."
It was a similar story for Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra, who said: "We've been a very good free-throw shooting team all year, but that's crazy.
"I didn't realise we hadn't missed a free throw.
"It's just a normal Tuesday night for the Miami Heat. I think this is when we feel most alive, when everything just happens and when all of our competitive juices get out there.
"That's the team we all can relate to. That's the team I like."
Miami are now 22-20 for the season and sit eighth in the Eastern Conference.
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