Cameron Boozer’s first career triple-double has a morning after, and it arrived with the reaction the record earned, a settled place in the franchise book, and the one piece of news Thursday night left hanging: Ja Morant’s hamstring is a month-long problem, not a scare. The full story of Thursday night itself is in iimiTV’s breaking report on Boozer recording the second-youngest triple-double in NBA history.
FINAL: Memphis Grizzlies 124, Portland Trail Blazers 103. The Cameron Boozer triple-double read 18 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists in 28 minutes at Moda Center, Memphis improved to 5-0, and Portland (3-1) took its first loss of the season.
Next for Memphis: Sacramento Kings at Memphis Grizzlies, Saturday, October 31, 2026, 8:00 p.m. ET at FedExForum
Next for Portland: Portland Trail Blazers at Utah Jazz, Saturday, October 31, 2026
Cameron Boozer Triple-Double Draws The Reaction It Earned
The quote of the night belonged to the head coach. Asked about his rookie’s historic line in the post-game press conference, Memphis coach Tuomas Iisalo deadpanned that the Cameron Boozer triple-double should have arrived sooner. “It took him long enough. It was his fifth game already,” Iisalo said, as quoted by The Daily Memphian’s Drew Hill. It was a joke built on a real belief: this is a No. 3 overall pick the Grizzlies already trust to run their offence, and everyone in the building knows it.
Boozer refused to take the bait and celebrate. “It’s nice. I will keep going. The season’s just starting. We have 77 more, so a lot more to come,” he said. He was just as honest about the four games before Thursday, when his shot would not fall, including a 9-of-33 stretch across consecutive games at Utah and Sacramento. “I felt a little bit out of rhythm,” Boozer said. “For me, I was impacting winning in all those games, but I wanted to play better.” His teammates supplied the celebration he skipped: Cedric Coward, Taylor Hendricks and GG Jackson crashed his on-court post-game interview chanting that he is just a rookie and that he really made history. The NBA’s official channel cut the night itself into one package, and it shows why the room reacted that way:
The veteran in the backcourt said the quiet part plainly. Ty Jerome, who played through back stiffness on Thursday, called Boozer “as complete of a player as I’ve seen and as mature of a rookie as I’ve seen,” adding: “There’s nothing he can’t do on a basketball court.” Iisalo, past the joke, landed in the same place: “He’s unbelievable. He’s showing a consistent ability to keep learning and keep improving within the season.”
Morant Injury Turns Thursday’s Footnote Into A Month
The second headline out of Moda Center got its answer on Friday, and it was the bad version. The Trail Blazers said Morant sustained a Grade 2 left hamstring strain in Thursday’s loss, detected on an MRI, and that he will be re-evaluated in four weeks. ESPN’s Shams Charania reported the same timeline: out at least four weeks. Morant exited with 7:46 remaining after grabbing at his left hamstring during a stoppage, finishing his first game against his former team with 14 points, two rebounds and three assists in 23 minutes.
The numbers frame what Portland loses. Morant is averaging 15.8 points and 5.5 assists through four games in his first season with the Trail Blazers after seven seasons as the face of the Grizzlies, who dealt him on June 29 for Jerami Grant and Kris Murray. Portland’s injury report for Saturday at Utah already lists him out, and the minutes now fall to Scoot Henderson and Jrue Holiday in a backcourt that was built around having all three. The February meeting between these teams, Morant’s return to Memphis, was supposed to be the homecoming game. Four weeks is the floor on this timeline, not the return date, and that February date is now a health question before it is a story.
The Record Book Settled Overnight
With a day to check the books, Boozer’s night gained two lines Thursday’s coverage did not have. He is not only the second-youngest player in NBA history to record a triple-double, at 19 years and 103 days, 19 days older than Josh Giddey was in January 2022. He is also the youngest player in Grizzlies franchise history to do it, a mark the club’s own record tracking confirmed in Friday’s game preview. Sports Wire Live added another frame: Boozer joins Oscar Robertson as the only players to record a triple-double before suffering their first NBA loss, because Giddey’s record night came in a defeat and Boozer’s came in a 21-point win.
The five-game totals explain why Memphis is not treating this as one hot night. Boozer is averaging 15.4 points, 10.8 rebounds and 6.2 assists, leading the Grizzlies in both rebounding and assists while Jerome leads them in scoring at 25.8 points per game. Memphis and the Houston Rockets are the league’s last two unbeaten teams. The Grizzlies’ own channel published Boozer’s full night against Portland as a standalone highlight reel, every touch that built the line:
Rookie Showcase Waits On Saturday Night
What it means next arrives quickly. Memphis hosts Sacramento on Saturday night at FedExForum, and the matchup is now a genuine rookie showcase: the Kings arrive 0-5, but they bring Darius Acuff Jr., the seventh overall pick out of Arkansas, who is averaging 24 points and 6.6 assists. On Thursday at New Orleans, the same night as Boozer’s triple-double, Acuff set career highs with 34 points and 14 assists, becoming just the fourth teenager in NBA history to record at least 30 points and 10 assists in a game, and joining Wilt Chamberlain, Allen Iverson and Shaquille O’Neal among players with multiple 30-point games in their first five appearances. “The poise he shows in all the moments,” Kings coach Doug Christie said. “He is learning how to lead and pick and choose his spots. The kid wants to win and we are going to lead him there.”
Sacramento is shorthanded beyond its record, having lost Ben Simmons to an Achilles injury, and Memphis already won the first meeting 123-112 in Sacramento on October 26. The Grizzlies’ own watch item is Jerome’s back, which slowed him Thursday. But the frame for Saturday is the one Thursday created: two 19-year-olds, picked four spots apart in June, already carrying their teams’ offences, meeting for the second time in a week. Boozer said there are 77 more games to play. The next one suddenly looks like the early Rookie of the Year argument, staged in Memphis.
