The Los Angeles Lakers lost back-to-back games in recent days, popping the momentum they had built by winning nine of their previous 10 games. They started a brief road trip to end the regular season by playing a Memphis Grizzlies team that was as banged up as an NBA team can be.
A whopping 13 Grizzlies players were listed as out on the injury report, and it seemed the Lakers would be able to cruise to an easy, lopsided win. Instead, L.A.’s syndrome of sporting a lackadaisical attitude when playing an inferior squad struck again.
The Lakers scored eight unanswered points to end the first quarter up 34-26, and it looked like they were about to start dominating. But after they went up by 13 points in the second quarter, the Grizzlies came to within one point late in the period, partly due to 10 first-half turnovers by L.A. The Grizzlies took the lead less than three minutes into the second half and went up by as many as nine in the third quarter, and there was a real possibility the Purple and Gold would suffer their worst and most humiliating loss of the season.
Luckily, LeBron James and crew woke up just enough and just in time. They forged an eight-point lead in the fourth quarter, and while Memphis kept coming hard at them, they had just enough firepower and determination to squeak out a 123-120 win.
Offensively, the Lakers were solid. They shot 51.9% from the field and outscored Memphis 25-11 in fast-break points. But they allowed some not-so-well-known players to go off. Forward GG Jackson II, a rookie taken in the second round of the draft, exploded for 31 points and seven 3-pointers, while Scotty Pippen Jr., an undrafted guard who spent his rookie year with the Lakers last season, had 28 points, six assists and four steals.
Ultimately, Los Angeles was its own worst enemy. It allowed Jordan Goodwin, a 6-foot-3 guard, to gobble up 17 rebounds, leading to it getting outrebounded by four. It also committed 19 turnovers, which was inexcusable against such a short-handed team.
Still, a win is a win, and it elevated the Lakers, at least for the moment, into eighth place in the Western Conference. Their final regular-season game will be on Sunday against the sixth-place New Orleans Pelicans, and it will have huge implications.
In his first full game of action since Saturday, Davis led Los Angeles with 13 first-quarter points. Memphis started sending multiple defenders at him, but it didn’t matter much, as he feasted with Jaren Jackson Jr….
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