The Los Angeles Lakers have found themselves in the middle of an eight-game losing streak going back into the preseason. Coming off two losses that featured an implosion against the Phoenix Suns with a scuffle on the bench between Anthony Davis and Dwight Howard along with Rajon Rondo’s incident with a fan, the Lakers faced the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday night.
After falling down early 17-7 creating a vibe of “Uh oh”, the Lakers went crazy to end the first quarter on a 22-7 run led by Anthony Davis down low and the sharpshooting of Carmelo Anthony from the outside.
But after going into halftime up six points, Ja’ Morant (More on this dude later!) exploded in the third quarter to make it a very close final quarter.
Then both teams put up a great battle but in the end, the Los Angeles Lakers won the game 121-118. Games like these make post games fun and this is easily the most complete team performance by the Lakers this season.
The good from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:
Russell Westbrook got DeAndre Jordan untracked early!
Let’s be clear here, as bad as Russell Westbrook has struggled in his short time in Los Angeles, DeAndre Jordan has been worse. A whole lot worse. But in this game, Westbrook seemingly found Jordan time and time again early in the game.
https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1452451783817658372
Jordan scored more baskets in the first seven minutes (3) than he had in the first two games combined (2). But contributing to DeAndre’s scoring got him engaged on both ends. D.J. rebounded the ball well and blocked shots. He kept things manageable before his teammates took over and went on that huge run spanning the first and second quarters.
The Lakers can live with 8 points and 8 rebounds from Jordan. The Lake Show Life staff can too.
Anthony Davis’ start!
Sometimes readers of Lake Show Life ask me if the team reads these things. After AD’s performance, the staff wondered if he read the last post-game report…
"Give the ball to AD on the left wing and let him figure out if he will go to the paint, go to his left for a fadeaway or shoot a fadeaway jumper from that spot."
Well, Anthony Davis got to the paint and did damage at the rim scoring 13 points in the first half. He didn’t bail the Grizzlies out by shooting fall-away jumpers, he used his size to overpower their frontline to score baskets.
His aggressiveness took Jaren Jackson Jr. totally out of the game and AD had a huge block late in the game on Jackson Jr.’s 3 point shot that kept Memphis at bay.
Then after struggling with free throws all season long, AD hit two huge free throws in crunch time. He finished with 22 points, 8 rebounds and 4 blocks.
Carmelo Anthony made history!
Yes, this writer is biased on Carmelo Anthony and here’s why. Anthony passed Moses Malone for ninth place on the all-time scoring list.
But it was much more than that for Melo. In the last quarter, he was bombing Memphis from beyond the arc and finished with 28 points. The Lakers needed every last point he gave out.
He outscored the Memphis bench by himself.
This game in general.
This will be replayed on NBATV tomorrow guaranteed. This was the game of the night.
The bad from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:
Offensive rebounding!
Memphis for the most part besides Ja Morant was terrible throughout the game. What kept it close was the dominant performance on the offensive boards. The Grizz, led by Steven Adams, had eight offensive rebounds by himself to the Lakers’ nine. The extra possessions hurt the Lakers a lot.
The story from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:
Russell Westbrook needs to archive video of this game because this is the blueprint of how he needs to play for the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Lakers have already reneged on their promise of getting LeBron James to play off the ball long-term. Now Russ will have to adjust to thrive in this offense. In the first half of this game, he proved that he can carve his own niche’. After dishing out nine assists to his teammates, he exploded for nine straight points late in the second quarter.
He finished with 13 points, 13 assists with a huge steal to seal the game for the Lakers.
The Los Angeles Lakers shoots lights out from behind the arc!
LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Malik Monk hit huge shots throughout the game from the 3 point line. Shooting 16-30 from distance can win you a lot of games.
Ja Morant…
Look the Lakers won this game, but they didn’t beat the Memphis Grizzlies…they beat Ja Morant. This dude put on a show in this game scoring in every conceivable way a player can on a basketball court.
https://twitter.com/memgrizz/status/1452473409917554688
Morant finished with an absurd stat line of 40 points, 10 assists and 3 rebounds. Sure he missed that free throw to send it to overtime, but this dude is a legitimate superstar!
But in the end, the Lakers had six players in double figures and that canceled his great performance out.