GRIZZLIES -at- LAKERS - 4-24-23 - Thoughts and :-)) Ratings

[DancingBarry]

Old Man Drops 20-20 in 45 Minutes... A grind it out win from the Lakers tonight.

The Lakers trailed 10-4 early, but rallied back behind 10 points from Vando, who hit a couple of threes and whose general activity led to points. Vando being open came at the cost of some Laker stars seeing extra defenders. L.A. would take a 29-23 first quarter lead.

The Lakers pulled out to a 15-point lead with 3:15 left in the first half with some good production by the bench unit, but they gave that away to end the half. The momentum stalled a little in the quarter after back-to-back coaching challenge reviews. Then, the Lakers gave up a couple second-chance buckets in a row and that started a 14-1 rally for the Grizzlies. The Lakers went into halftime up 54-52.

The teams battled throughout the third, with the Lakers trailing 83-81 heading into fourth after back-to-back Ja dunks at end of the third.

The Grizzlies were starting to get some separation late in the fourth quarter. Down 7, D’Angelo Russell hit back-to-back threes to cut it to one. After a timeout, he’d hit his third three in a row and the Lakers had the lead. Russell’s night was cut short, however, when he would foul out with 1:45 left in regulation.

With the score tied up and the clock winding down in regulation, Rui Hachimura couldn’t finish at the front of the rim (getting hit in the arm with no call). The Grizzlies would grab that and score in transition with 6 seconds left to take the lead -- a 4-point switch and L.A. was down 2.

After the time out, we put the ball in LeBron’s hands with the floor spaced. He attacked past his man to the right and scored high over the help defense with 0.8 left, sending this game to overtime after a stop at the other end.

The overtime was intense. First play Dennis Schröder dove to the floor to recover a loose ball and hit AD coming for a layup. The crowd went nuts.

Bron would get his first 20-20 game of his career in overtime. The key moment came with half a minute left, the Lakers up by a couple points. He found himself with the ball and Brooks on him and let the clock wind down. He stepped on the gas, muscled his way to the hoop, drew the D and hit the And-1 runner -- the kill shot. Crypto went nuts.

This one hung in the balance, but the Lakers took the 117-111 win to go up 3-1. Back to Memphis we go to see if we can close it out.

“They’re going to come out desperate and hungry. We got to match that and surpass that,” Anthony Davis said afterward.


LeBron -- -- Call him old if you want. Do it at your own risk. Dude was huge, grabbing boards, taking charges, blocking shots, hitting a driving layup at the end of regulation. Then, going for the absolute kill, one on one against Brooks in LBJ’s 45th minute. Prior to that he had JJJ on a switch and attacked hard, finishing a layup with two long strides. Nothing about that was old man like. Then we come to the decisive moment up 3 with half a minute left. The crowd saw the matchup with Brooks. Everyone, all over L.A. was on their feet. Bron said, hell yeah. He attacked hard to his left, muscled his way to the rim and hit the And-1 runner and the place went nuts. Throughout his career he’s been a master of pacing himself to have enough at the end of games. Sometimes, in the past few years, he’s definitely been a bit gassed. The strong finish in this game was all that experience coming to play, all that work in the offseasons. He had an average sort of first half for him. Scoring was a little slow until he hit a pull-up three with 33 seconds in the first quarter. He’d 11 points on 4-7 shooting and 8 boards in the half. But as the game went along, he continued to hit the boards, stand in for charges. We were down 2 with a few seconds left. We got the ball to him with the floor spread. He attacked hard. Got past Tillman and then finished over JJJ coming to challenge. Tie game. No win without him willing us past the finish line. A 20-20 game from the old man. Damn. The Stats: He scored 22 points on 8-18 shooting (1-7 from three, 5-7 from the line) to go with 20 boards (5 offensive), 7 assists, 2 blocks, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 45 minutes. He was a +8.

Davis -- -- He went 0-5 in the first half with just 2 points. After three quarters, 1-8 with 3 turnovers and just 4 points. They were sending a lot of help even before catches. The Lakers tried a little too hard to get him the ball at times. He was able to come up big with a couple buckets in overtime. The first got us going when Dennis hit the floor for a loose ball. AD cut to the paint, took the pass from Dennis on the floor and scored the layup. He drew a foul shortly later on a seal and made a freethrow. He’d then come up big on a Reaves drive to tip in the dribble penetration at the rim. The team shot a poor 10-36 from three (27.8%). The paint is packed. We tried to run our corner sequence early in the game for AD, and you saw JJJ weakside coming over to zone it up leaving Vando open in the opposite corner for a three. That adjustment took away that play. The Grizzlies stayed in front of AD on the double drags to cut his options there. There is a relationship between Vando’s 15 points and AD’s tough night offensively. There was one play directly between the two I liked where we got the ball to AD on the short roll, that pulled JJJ to him in the middle of the paint and Vando came from the corner for AD to find him for a dunk. Defensively, another 4 blocks from AD, including one at the buzzer, spiking Ja to end regulation. He’s a beast there. We did struggle giving up second chance points. Just got to do a better job as a team preventing those offensive boards. Some foul trouble for AD early in this one, but he cleaned that up after the first quarter (we also burned a challenge to save him a foul). The Stats: He scored 12 points on 4-13 shooting (0-1 from three, 4-6 from the line) to go with 11 points, 2 assists, 2 steals, 4 blocks, 4 turnovers and 3 fouls in 42 minutes. He was a -3.

Russell -- -- “I got to give a huge shout out to D’angelo Russell,” Ham said. “I mean we were flailing at best offensively and he was able to catch fire. Man, he put us on his back offensively.” Three straight threes in the middle of the fourth. The Lakers were down 7 and he cut it to 1 with 4:18 left. Reaves found him on a drive and kick. It gave Russell a chance to shoot that set shot, no rushing, and he knocked it down. Next time down, he hit a pull back three. The Grizzlies called a timeout. After we got a stop, Russell took a handoff and buried the third straight three to give the Lakers the lead. He’d get us back in the game before fouling out with just under 2 minutes left. Man, before this one started I was hoping we’d see one of those flurries of threes from him late in this game. He does it a lot in the regular season where he feels it, feeds off the crowd energy and drills multiple threes in crunch time. He changed momentum completely. The Stats: He scored 17 points on 7-15 shooting (3-8 from three) to go with 1 board, 3 assists, 2 turnovers and 6 fouls in 29 minutes. He was a -16.

Reaves -- -- A lot of action for him with the ball. We let him run the double drag early. We ran an inverted screen with him and Bron late for a three. I thought he was the key to Russell hitting those threes. That first one, he drew the D to him on a drive and kicked it out and D’Angelo had all day to set himself up. I felt a couple of times he missed an open man on his penetration as the defense collapsed on him. He found him that time. Then on that third three by D’Lo, it was Reaves who pushed it up to him and threw a kickback while screening the defender and Russell could square up and drill it. He also had a huge make himself, attacking off the three line and slicing through the D past defenders to score a layup with 45 seconds in regulation. Huge shot. In overtime, his dribble penetration allowed for an AD tip in. These are big plays and the team trusts him completely -- a second year, undrafted player. Proving that he’s looking like lottery talent in a redraft, guess who led the team in scoring tonight? Reaves, along with 6 dimes, as well. Kid is a gamer and the physicality and pressure is not knocking him off his game. Defensively, he got into some foul trouble in the first half. Then, picked up a quick one to start the second half. He had to be careful from that point forward. That might have impacted his D a little, but he avoided a foul the rest of the way. Bron said afterward the Reaves mentioned something along the lines of this was the greatest game or basketball he’s ever been involved in. He said he couldn’t repeat exactly what AR said, but that stuck with Bron afterward. The Stats: He scored 23 points on 7-16 shooting (2-5 from three, 7-8 from the line) to go with 4 boards, 6 assists, 1 steal, 3 turnovers and 4 fouls in 42 minutes. He was a +12

Vanderbilt -- -- In the spotlight early leading the Lakers in scoring with 10 in the first quarter. He sank a couple of wide open corner threes (tapped on another), had a tip-in and then blocked a jumper on one end, then dunked on the other on the leakout. He was a -18 in 20 minutes this game. With so much Ja, we leaned on Vando a lot. Finally, we gave that up and went to three guard lineups or Rui as a third big. He did pretty well with what they were giving up, but it kinds of reminds me of Westbrook’s numbers on this team sometimes where someone gets theirs, but the overall problems for the team game persist as the defense is able to take away other primary options. So some of the same rules apply to Vando. Obviously, hitting threes helps, but it doesn’t change the gravity. Screening for others (pin-ins, or kickbacks like Reaves gave to D’Lo or like you see with Draymond Green at time can cause issues). Cutting off ball can drag a man with you. Dunker spot position can help, but Vando isn’t as strong as finishing as guys like Wenyen or a bigger AD on those situations. Defensively, they said they were pushing Ja over screens more to change up a little over last time. He did a pretty good job with that. Great job contesting shots, too. The Stats: He scored 15 points on 6-9 shooting (2-5 from three, 1-2 from the line) to go with 6 boards (3 offensive), 1 assist, 3 blocks, 2 turnovers and no fouls in 20 minutes. He was a -18.

Schröder -- -- Let’s start with the bad first. I mentioned in the last game the issues he was having with the passing (turnovers on bad passes but also missing guys). More of that tonight, including a couple of turnovers in overtime. Credit the Grizzlies defense for not giving up anything easy all night. Our execution, though, particularly on freelancing sequences with Dennis left a lot to be desired. Still, he just doesn’t have the shooting skills and the D can short circuit some of our set plays, too. So it gets tricky to find him some spots. In OT when the sets fell apart a couple of times, Dennis isn’t the playmaker to pull us all together again. On the good side, I think his defense helped a lot in that we didn’t need to bring Vando back in the mix and cause more issues. He drew a moving screen call for a big stop. Morant takes a team coverage, of course, but we held him to 19 on 8-24 shooting with 4 turnovers on his 7 assists. Some crafty moments drawing some FTs for the team. He also hit two big ones to help shut the door in OT on the intentional foul. By the way, the difference between that foul being two FTs and Reaves getting called for a take foul early in the game when AD was hurt? No difference. The team got some cheap ones on two take foul calls and a delay of game tech in this one. The Stats: He scored 12 points on 3-5 shooting (0-1 from three, 6-6 from the line) to go with 1 assist, 2 steals, 2 blocks, 3 turnovers and 1 foul in 30 minutes. He was a +24.

Hachimura -- -- Really needed more Rui in the game just to help spacing. Just 8 minutes in the first half and 26 for the game. We closed with him, though, as Russell fouled out. We really need to give him more time and Vando a little less to help AD get more spacing. Additionally, there were times when he was in the dunker spot versus out further on the floor and that doesn’t help anything. His one three was a wide open corner three when Bron collapsed the D and found. They were definitely tighter on him outside of that tonight. And that’s a good thing. That means he’s spacing the floor. He got robbed a bit with about 10 seconds left and he was hit on the arm at the front of the rim trying to finish and the Grizzlies took that for a breakaway score on the other end. That was a 4-point switch. The Stats: He scored 7 points on 2-9 shooting (1-4 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 6 boards, 1 assist and no fouls in 26 minutes. He was a +18.

Beasley -- -- Finally got a three out of him in his limited minutes. It came on a double drag play executed by Dennis. Schröder got penetration, kicked to the corner and that was swung to Beasley for the wing three. Short minutes again as we just ran him 9 and were mostly an 8-man rotation. The Stats: He scored 3 points on 1-4 shooting (1-3 from three) to go with with no other stats. He was a -1.

Brown -- -- Better minutes offensively from him. He had 6 points on 3-3 shooting in the first half. He scored a layup on a tap of an offensive board by Dennis to him. He then scored on a reverse layup a few seconds later on the break with Bron. We had a play bust (again on ATO, which seems to happen a bit and we somehow end up with Brown trying to iso). But he took it to Ja on that play, just bulling him for a layup. Some moments defensively on challenges or stripping a ball off Ja. Still quiet as we need that three ball from him and he missed both attempts. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 3-5 shooting (0-2 from the line) to go with 4 boards, 1 assist and no fouls in 22 minutes. He was a +6.

Ham -- -- Key Moment: Six seconds left, down 2, we got the ball to Bron up top with the floor spread. He went quick to his right and scored the layup with 0.8 left. Huge make. I loved seeing Bron just step on the gas on that one. No time to dance around. No time for the D to really think. That sent the game to overtime.

Key Substitution: Russell fouling out late in the fourth was huge. We were down 1 with 1:45. We went with AD, Rui, Bron, Reaves and Schröder to close this one out. They dug in and pulled it out. Late in overtime when we were having to defend the three line, that unit did an excellent job switching everything up and Rui got a great challenge in on Ja’s corner three. Two-way minutes wins you playoff games.

Key Stats: The Lakers lost the battle of second-chance points 24-12. That was huge. You’ve got to win that battle in the playoffs or at least keep it even. Grizzlies shot 9-42 from three (21.4%), Lakers shot 10-36 (27.8%). Credit some good D by both teams there.

Coach’s Challenge: The Grizzlies used theirs midway through the second quarter on a bad cross-court pass by Russell that the refs said was deflected. After long review, inconclusive. No overturn. Barely a possession later, the Lakers used their challenge up 14 when AD picked up his third foul. This was overturned, so AD keeps just 2 fouls. Lakers had momentum and this completely stalled out the quarter up 44-30. The Grizzlies won that jumpball then hit a three.

[mhan00]

This game almost killed me. Forgot how intense playoff basketball was.

[lordtrapula]

DLO finally had his playoff moment. It was rough to start but without that 4th quarter we could be looking at 2-2.

Also Memphis defense is the real deal. I imagine this is the most physical series Lakers will face (Dubs series can come close) unless they get to the east.

Grizzilies have so many young good defenders to throw at us, not to mention the DPOY, but thankfully we've locked them up so far.

[sonic the laker]

Thanks, DB! This game was tough to watch. Lots of sloppy, stagnant play, that resulted in the Lakers offense looking real mid, at best. But, happy to see the grind and grit, to get the win.

And, I continue to rail against Ham's insistence on playing Beasley. The highlight of the game for him was making one shot...out of 4. Previously Rui was doing the heavy lifting in regards to bench scoring. But, I knew that there would be a time when he would have a low scoring game. This was the game. We needed some more scoring off the bench, especially with AD also having scoring issues. Yet, with all that staring us in the face, Ham continued to go to Beasley. And, what makes it even more maddening is, it looks like no one is expecting him to do anything productive. He only gets around 9-10 minutes a game, as a way to spell Reaves. That's what he's been reduced to. A space filler. What's frustrating about that is, you have other players you can go to, that have the potential to be more than just space fillers, and bring production to the floor...
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ZOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Dr. Laker]

Thanks, DB!

These are the types of wins that championship teams gut out.
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On Lakersground, a concern troll is someone who is a fan of another team, but pretends to be a Lakers fan with "concerns".

[tox]

DB trying his hardest not to P&M about the officiating too much in the win. Stay classy DB, I'll complain enough for the two of us

[slavavov]

[TooMuchMajicBuss]

Thanks DB! Great writeup on great game to win! Momentum in the balance! Who's in control of this series?

Kudos to LBJ and Austin, tremendous games, and also to DLO for coming up big when the Lakers needed it, Vanderbilt for doing the dirty work, and to both Davis and Schroeder for their contribution on defense at winning time.

Good job Lakers!

[A Mad Chinaman]

DB - thanks for the review!!

LBJ’s 20-20 meets Dillon’s “40” - lol

Sir Charles was puzzled on the wide differences in production from game to game, especially in this playoff series. Chris Haynes mentioned that AD seemed to be having problems while sitting separate from the team during TOs

Obvious that LBJ is this team’s “Bus Driver!!!” AD is very important but his consistency seems to wain. Hopefully, his defensive impact and influence will never go away since LBJ can take care of the offensive needs

LBJ stated that since most of the others, he was trying to keep them level-headed and he will take care of all the Xs&Os so that they can totally focus on what they need to get done. LEADERSHIP

Everybody, including DS, know what he needs to work on during this off-season.

Rui will be even better in the off-season after he hits the weight room

Hopefully Beasley will get some PT, hopefully during a Lakers Blowout to regain his confidence and stroke. Since this is his first high intensity playoff experience, he needs time to acclimate to the intense pressure of teams that have totally scouted him because of his reputation to be a great steak shooter

All the Super Fans like York showed up!!!
https://www.google.com/amp/story/s/www.essentiallysports.com/stories/-nba-basketball-news-who-is-yori-saneyoshi-the-lakers-super-fan-who-went-viral-with-jack-nicholson/

[DrDent]

Thanks DB.

Fantastic win. Did not think they'd pull it out when their offense started going full slug-fest. D'lo raining 3s really boosted the club in the 4th.

By no means are they the best collection of players I've seen, but man when they lock in they are one of the more fun bunch to watch play for a Laker squad.
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"One thing I admire about Kuzma is his unwavering confidence. He truly has no idea that he’s not as good as he thinks." - Killer_Z

[wolfpaclaker]

55 points from role guys DLO, Reaves, Vandy. 2 wins now where the role guys stepped up big. 1 MVP level AD game. We need one more MVP level AD game and this series is done.

How big was DLO in the 4th? And The Grizz really showed their age in this series. A lot of dumb mistakes.

[JerryWest_44]

Love the summary as usual but I would give Schro some flowers and love for hounding JA all night and holding him to a low scoring game.

[DancingBarry]

[DancingBarry]

[DancingBarry]

[Laker7]

Lebron and AD combined 34 points.

"Other Guys" combined 83 points.
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Darvin Ham is an idiot!

[Nobody]

Thanks DB!

What a grind out game, wow. I thought they were done down 7 with late in the fourth, but then D'Angelo finally found his stroke. I've almost forgotten how nervous playoff basketball makes me. Kudos to the crew, and here's to hoping that Beasley has one of those games sooner rather than later.

[joeblow]

As bizarre as it sounds, AD's game last night was underrated. Yes, his offense was disappointing most of the game (as it was for LeBron), but the defense he provided was the anchor behind why Memphis didn't out score us.

When AD was the primary defender on a shot, the Grizz made only 17% FGAs. That's tremendous. In the end we want to score as many points as possible as a team, but we simultaneously want the other team to score as few points as possible.

The defensive MVP in Game 4 was Anthony Davis, and I for one appreciate his effort on that end, especially after he got shook up early with the hip injury.

[wolfpaclaker]

The Grizz really miss Adams/Clarke, and we're extremely fortunate that this played out this way. Morant injures his hand as well, and their mojo anyway was off a bit with the Morant off the court situation.

It's been a very close series despite them having their best options vs AD out. Adams is a very good man defender allowing them to not have to double AD off catches or post touche as much. Clarke, would give them an above the rim off the ball threat. Easily this series is 2-2, with those guys IMO. So we need to take care of this by 6. The Bball gods have given us a lot of breaks these last 2 months. Hoping it continues. We don't want to give this team any releif or easy game. If they beat us in the next one, make them give an all time effort.

[LakerSD]

[ThePageDude]

[tox]

[DancingBarry]

[A Mad Chinaman]

[DancingBarry]

I just think of how much offense those teams run through each of those players with consistency. It’s completely different than how we use AD. He is also more point guard dependent. Just rewatching the game right now and in the fourth quarter he is setting screen after screen after screen. No one is putting the ball in his hands. I think those most he had it was that one steal where he tried to take it the distance.