The Los Angeles Lakers have advanced to the NBA Playoffs and just like the last time the purple and gold made the playoffs, they are the seventh seed in the Western Conference. Like in 2021, the team that the Lakers are playing is probably a bit upset that they have to face LeBron James and Anthony Davis in round one.
Los Angeles is on a collision course with the Memphis Grizzlies, who have had an up-and-down season, to say the least. The Lakers won the season series against the Grizzlies two games to one with all three of the games coming after the turn of the calendar year.
Those regular-season matchups don’t really mean much but there still are several reasons to be optimistic that the Lakers will get this done and advance to round two.
3 reasons why the Lakers will upset the Grizzlies in the NBA Playoffs:
1. Anthony Davis’ absurd numbers vs the Grizzlies
Anthony Davis has absolutely dominated the Grizzlies this season and has averaged nearly 30 points and 20 rebounds a game. A two-game sample-size is small, sure, but Davis is set up nicely to dominate his opposition in this particular playoff matchup.
A big reason why Davis is set up for success is the lack of Steven Adams for the Grizzlies. Adams is out of action and without him, Memphis does not have much quality size to throw at the Lakers. Sure, the team has Jaren Jackson Jr, but his style of play gets hindered by the fact that he does not have a center to rely on.
Plus, Triple J has never been someone to play big minutes as he has never averaged over 30 minutes per game. He might be a great defender but not having Adams is going to make it very hard for him to slow down AD’s dominance.
The Lakers won the NBA Championship in 2020 behind a stellar postseason by Davis and the team lost in 2021 because he got hurt. He is extremely important and is set up to dominate.
2. The Grizzlies offense is not built to overcome the Lakers
On paper, the Memphis Grizzlies seem to have an offense that is good enough to get by with Ja Morant leading the way. Memphis finished ninth in points per game and 14th in offensive rating. It might not be elite, but coupled with good defense, it was more than enough to win regular-season games.
That being said, there is one area of the game that the Grizzlies do not excel in: three-point shooting. In fact, Memphis is very similar to the Lakers as they finished the season with a 35.1% three-point field goal percentage. The Lakers finished two spots behind at 34.6%.
While Memphis is the better three-point shooting team, the Lakers have had a lot of success this season against teams that are unable to shoot the three well. It has been the teams that are successful from beyond the arc that have given the Lakers problems.
The Lakers were 15-5 against teams that shot 35.1% from three or worse this season. Against teams in the bottom half of the league (36.1% or worse), the Lakers were a combined 25-10. The team did not lose a single season series against any of these teams.
Memphis does have Luke Kennard, who the team traded for at the deadline and has been lights out for them, but the Lakers did do a good job of holding him at bay in the two regular-season matchups against him. Based on this trend, Lakers fans should be hopeful.
3. The Lakers have simply been the better basketball team over the last two months
The Memphis Grizzlies are the second seed in the West and have the better overall record than the Lakers. There was a pretty sizeable gap as well as Memphis was eight games better than the Lakers overall for the regular season.
Nine times out of ten that simply shows what everyone already knows: the second-seeded team is better than the seventh-seeded team. However, this is not the standard seven-two matchup as the Lakers are not the standard seventh seed.
This is a Lakers team that completely reinvented itself at the trade deadline and has been one of the better teams in the league since then. Not only was Rob Pelinka able to solve the Russell Westbrook problem but he actually created a roster that complements his star players and plays really well together.
Los Angeles is 18-8 since the trade deadline and a lot of those games were without LeBron James in the lineup. Los Angeles is 9-2 since the deadline in games that LeBron James played. Memphis, meanwhile, is 18-10 since the trade deadline.
There is not much of a difference there and granted, Memphis was playing without Ja Morant for a decent number of those games. With Morant, the Grizzlies are 11-5 since the deadline and 7-5 without him.
This is not to say that the Grizzlies are a bad team. Instead, the fact of the situation is that the Lakers have the talent of a 50-win team and with LeBron James in the lineup, have played to an incredible winning percentage since the deadline.