Grizzlies Rout Lakers, Send Series Back to L.A. for Game Six
The L.A. Lakers barely survived at home in game four versus the Memphis Grizzlies, and they provided little resistance on the road in game five, losing 116-99. If the Lakers and their fans assume that winning game six at home is a lock then they may be in for a very unpleasant surprise, because--despite the hype and the weird narratives that ignore evidence and common sense--the Lakers are the same team that they have been throughout the season: they do not consistently play hard or smart, which is why they needed to survive the Play-In Tournament to qualify for the playoffs.
The undersized Grizzlies--who are without the services of injured big men Steven Adams and Brandon Clarke--outscored the Lakers in the paint 56-48 while keeping the rebound battle nearly level (the Lakers won, 54-52). The 2023 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Jaren Jackson Jr. scored 18 points and tied for the team lead with 10 rebounds. Desmond Bane (33 points, 10 rebounds, five assists) and Ja Morant (31 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists) outplayed the Lakers' two 75th Anniversary Team players: Anthony Davis did his part (31 points, game-high 19 rebounds), but LeBron James finished with just 15 points on 5-17 field goal shooting, along with 10 rebounds, five assists, and a game-high five turnovers. Instead of attacking the paint, James settled for three pointers and he shot just 1-9 from beyond the arc. James is 38 years old and cannot reasonably be expected to dominate every game, but when James is having an off game his highly-touted supporting cast must pick up the slack.
The Lakers have received a lot of praise regarding the three players who they acquired in exchange for Russell Westbrook. Here is how the "tremendous trio" did versus Memphis in game five:
D'Angelo Russell had 11 points on 4-11 field goal shooting, but he did dish out a game-high 10 assists. He is averaging 13.8 ppg on .367 field goal shooting (25-68) during this series.
Jarred Vanderbilt had seven points on 3-4 field goal shooting. He is averaging 6.8 ppg on .609 field goal shooting (14-23) during this series.
Malik Beasley had six points on 2-6 field
goal shooting. He is averaging 3.2 ppg on .278 field goal shooting (5-18) in during this series.
Russell is an erratic, inconsistent offensive player who is a subpar defensive player. Vanderbilt is a scrappy defender whose offensive game mainly consists of picking up loose change in the paint. Beasley is barely in the rotation; in this game, he posted a plus/minus number of -23 in just 11 minutes.
The Lakers offered little defensive resistance in the first quarter, and they trailed 38-24 at the end of the first 12 minutes. As is often the case, the tone set in the first quarter presaged how the rest of the game would unfold.
Game six will be fascinating. The Lakers are consistently inconsistent, while the Grizzlies are young, impetuous and volatile. Will LeBron James have the necessary energy--and mindset--to attack the paint? Will Anthony Davis be a force in the paint? Will any of the highly touted role players acquired in exchange for Russell Westbrook have a meaningful impact? Will the undermanned and undersized Grizzlies scrap their way to a win and reclaim homecourt advantage?
Labels: Anthony Davis, Desmond Bane, Ja Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr., L.A. Lakers, LeBron James, Memphis Grizzlies
posted by David Friedman @ 1:23 AM
Undermanned Grizzlies Embarrass LeBron's Listless Lakers
Seeking to take a 2-0 series lead over a Memphis team missing injured players Ja Morant, Steven Adams, and Brandon Clarke, the L.A. Lakers sleepwalked through the first quarter and barely woke up the rest of the way as the Grizzlies evened up the series with a 103-93 win. The Lakers took homecourt advantage by winning game one, but they must play a lot better to make sure that their first win in the series is not also their last.
Xavier Tillman--who may not be a household name in his own household, to borrow an old quip--led Memphis in scoring (22 points on 10-13 field goal shooting) while grabbing a game-high 13 rebounds, outplaying Anthony Davis (13 points on 4-14 field goal shooting, eight rebounds), who is a member of the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team. Davis did not look like the 75th best player in the NBA now, never mind being one of the 75 greatest players of all-time. Jaren Jackson Jr., who just won the Defensive Player of the Year award, added 18 points, nine rebounds, and three blocked shots. All five Memphis starters scored in double figures, and they were joined by Luke Kennard, who contributed 13 points off of the bench.
This game was not about offense, though. The Grizzlies shot just .427 from the field, but they held the Lakers--who have not one but two members of the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team--to .412 field goal shooting. Despite being without Adams and Clarke, the Grizzlies outrebounded the Lakers 49-47 and held the Lakers to a draw in the paint, with each team scoring 50 points. That draw is a win for the undersized Grizzlies.
LeBron James, the Lakers' other member of the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team, had one of his quintessential stat padding performances, scoring 28 points on 12-23 field goal shooting while grabbing 12 rebounds. I can think of at least two ESPN "journalists" who are probably writing articles (or filming standups) about how James cannot be blamed for this loss--without mentioning that James had a game-worst -17 plus/minus number. How does the self-proclaimed greatest player of all-time score 28 points while his team "loses" his on court time by 17 points? One clue can be seen in James' three point field goal shooting: 1-8. James is a force of nature, and Memphis is an undersized, undermanned team, so the Lakers' winning formula is obvious: attack the paint to score layups and draw fouls. James refused to do that on a consistent basis, and this cannot just be dismissed as something caused by his advanced age; James playing passively and not attacking the paint has been a recurring theme throughout his career, and this is made all the more glaring by the fact that in the playoff runs when he attacked the paint his teams won championships. We know that James can attack the paint because we have seen him do it. We also know that some of the Lakers' best plays in this game happened as a result of James attacking the paint.
What we don't know is why James often refuses to attack the paint; I have said for 20 years that James confounds me more than any other great player who I have ever watched or studied. His greatness is indisputable, and Skip "Clueless" is a moron for suggesting otherwise--but it is also indisputable that James does not always play in an optimal way for team success, resulting in some baffling and inexcusable losses.
The NBA is often a first quarter league, and the Grizzlies attacked the Lakers throughout the first quarter, pounding them in the paint 20-8 en route to leading 30-19 by the end of the first stanza. All season, we have heard nonsense about the Lakers needing "lasers," about Russell Westbrook being a washed up player who is supposedly a bad locker room influence, and about James needing more help. What James needs to do is attack the paint on offense and defend the paint on defense--and he needs to convince Anthony Davis to do both of those things as well.
Instead, the Lakers continued to play listlessly in the second quarter, trailing by as many as 16 points and being outscored 59-44 in the first 24 minutes. During TNT's halftime show, Kenny Smith declared that the Lakers "should be ashamed."
Charles Barkley echoed that sentiment, and identified the Lakers' unfounded self-belief as the reason "why the Lakers have been inconsistent all year." James
led the Lakers with 12 first half points--and he had a team-worst -15
plus/minus number.
I picked Memphis to win this series despite Adams and Clarke being injured (Morant got injured in game one) because the Grizzlies have been the second seeded team in the Western Conference each of the past two seasons. They are a young squad that is building a winning culture. In contrast, during the five seasons that LeBron James has spent with the Lakers the team has missed the playoffs twice, lost in the first round once, and snuck into the playoffs this season via the Play-In Tournament, needing overtime before dispatching the shorthanded Minnesota Timberwolves. Of course, the Lakers won the 2020 "Bubble" title, so James and his fans will always be able to unfurl the "Mission Accomplished" banner.
That championship does not--or should not--absolve James of responsibility for the Lakers' consistent mediocrity throughout his time in L.A.
All season long, "experts" like Dave McMenamin and Brian Windhorst insisted that all that the Lakers needed to do was get rid of Westbrook and the team would improve significantly. After the Lakers traded Westbrook, the Lakers were singled out as the proverbial "team nobody wants to face."
So far--as noted above--the mighty Lakers stumbled into the playoffs via the Play-In Tournament, won one game against an undermanned Memphis team, and then fell asleep in game two. The next predictable propaganda narrative will be that the Lakers are in great shape because they have homecourt advantage. The reality is that homecourt advantage only matters if you play hard and play smart. For the past five years, the one constant with LeBron's Lakers is that they do not consistently play hard and play smart.
Media members heap praise on the three players who the Lakers acquired for the much-maligned Westbrook, so let's look how
those players did versus Memphis in game two.
D'Angelo
Russell had five points on 2-11 field goal shooting, plus four assists and three turnovers. He is averaging 12.0 ppg on .321 field goal shooting in the first two games of this series.
Jarred Vanderbilt had eight points on 3-5 field goal shooting. He is averaging 6.0 ppg on .556 field goal shooting in the first two games of this series.
Malik Beasley had seven points on 2-4 field goal shooting. He is averaging 3.5 ppg on .333 field goal shooting in the first two games of this series.
The Lakers traded a future Hall of Famer for two unproven role players (Beasley and Vanderbilt) plus one player who has never proven that he can be an effective rotation player on a winning team (Russell)--but we are supposed to believe that this was a stroke of brilliance!
The Lakers could still win this series; they have the two most talented players in the series and they have a size advantage--but I picked the Grizzlies because I have seen who these Lakers are for five years, and because I neither respect their team culture nor do I expect it to improve, and thus I believe that even a shorthanded team with a winning culture will prevail against a full strength team that does not consistently play the right way.
The Lakers run hot and cold, so I would not be surprised if they win game three in a blowout, lose a close game four at home, lose by 10 again on the road in game five, and then fall apart at home in game six. Every time the Lakers have one good game, some media members get so excited that they forget--or refuse--to look at the big picture. Outside of the protective 2020 "Bubble," none of the Lakers' "momentum wins" in the past five years have had any long-term significance: the Lakers' game one win did not mean much, and the same will be true if they win game three.
A team that does not consistently play hard is doomed to mediocrity. That is the truth about the Lakers; anything else is propaganda that will not stand the test of time (and of teams that play hard).
Labels: Anthony Davis, Jaren Jackson Jr., L.A. Lakers, LeBron James, Memphis Grizzlies, Xavier Tillman
posted by David Friedman @ 11:42 PM
Grizzlies Rout Warriors, Send Series Back to Golden State for Game Six
The Golden State Warriors went to Memphis on Wednesday night expecting a coronation, but instead of being crowned they got clowned. The Grizzlies scored the first five points of the game in less than a minute, never trailed, led by as many as 55 points, and defeated the Warriors 134-95 in a game that was not as close as the final score may suggest; this was a "name the number" game: the Grizzlies could have won by 40, 50, or 60 points if they had so desired. Ja Morant missed his second straight game due to a bone bruise in his knee that will reportedly keep him out of action for the rest of the playoffs, and the Grizzlies again demonstrated--as they did throughout the regular season--that they are much more than a one man team. No Memphis player played more than 25 minutes, but seven scored in double figures, led by three players who had 21 points each (Desmond Bane, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Tyus Jones). Steven Adams had a game-high 13 rebounds as the Grizzlies annihilated the Warriors 55-37 on the boards. Adams missed four straight playoff games due to a combination of COVID-19 and also the coaching staff deciding to play small, but he had 15 rebounds in 27 minutes as the Grizzlies led for most of game four before blowing it at the end, and he was similarly dominant in the paint in game five.
Shooting may not travel, but defense and rebounding do travel. The Grizzlies are big, they are physical, and they play excellent
defense. They have matchup advantages against Golden State, and they
have a chance to win this series even without Morant.
Perhaps that last sentence sounds bizarre or even crazy because of Golden State's "Death Lineup" and "championship DNA," so keep in mind that the nucleus of this team--with all of their vaunted "championship DNA"--blew a 3-1 lead in the 2016 NBA Finals. The popular perceptions of this series do not match up with reality. The "Death" in the Warriors' "Death Lineup" was mostly provided by two-time Finals MVP Kevin Durant, who also provided two thirds of the Warriors' three championships; the only other title came at the expense of a Cleveland team missing two of their three All-Stars, the same Cleveland team that--when healthy--beat the Warriors in the 2016 Finals.
Isn't a big part of "championship DNA" winning a series as quickly as possible to conserve energy and avoid injuries? Either the Warriors' "championship DNA" is missing a few strands, or these teams are more evenly matched than the "experts" suspect.
Klay Thompson led the Warriors with 19 points on 7-12 field goal shooting, but he also had a staggering -45 plus/minus number. Jonathan Kuminga added 17 points. Two-time regular season MVP Stephen Curry scored 14 points, shot 4-10 from the field, did not score in the second half, and posted a tidy -37 plus/minus number. Draymond Green produced a "triple single" (five points, seven rebounds, five assists), and a -32 plus/minus number. Jordan Poole scored three points on 1-6 field goal shooting. The "Splash Brothers" trio of Curry, Thompson and Poole barely created a ripple.
The Warriors will play better in game six at home--they could hardly play worse--but any notion that this will be easy is false. The Grizzlies came within a missed layup at the buzzer of winning game one, and they outplayed the Warriors for the vast majority of game four; the 3-2 margin in Golden State's favor could easily be 3-2 in Memphis' favor, and the Grizzlies are unlikely to show up for game six just happy to be there: the Grizzlies will play hard, and if just a little bit of their shooting travels with them they have a legitimate opportunity to bring this series back to Memphis for game seven, which could provide a great test of what exactly is in Golden State's "championship DNA" when Durant is not around to save the day.
Labels: Desmond Bane, Draymond Green, Golden State Warriors, Jaren Jackson Jr., Klay Thompson, Memphis Grizzlies, Stephen Curry, Steven Adams, Tyus Jones
posted by David Friedman @ 1:34 AM
Warriors Overcome 13 Point Deficit to Beat Grizzlies as Morant Misses Layup at the Buzzer
In round one of a bout between former champions and young upstarts, score one for the former champions: the Golden State Warriors overcame a 13 point first half deficit to beat the Memphis Grizzlies 117-116 to gain home court advantage, but don't be surprised if this heavyweight fight goes the full distance. Jordan Poole led the Warriors with 31 points on 12-20 field goal shooting, including 5-10 from three point range. Stephen Curry shot poorly from the field (8-20) and he had a team-worst -9 plus/minus number, but he accumulated 24 points and the Warriors needed every single point. Andrew Wiggins had a solid game (17 points, eight rebounds). Klay Thompson had a wretched shooting night (15 points on 6-19 field goal shooting, 0-2 free throw shooting), but he hit what turned out to be the game-winning three pointer, and he also played a major role in the game-saving defensive play.
Ja Morant scored a game-high 34 points on 14-31 field goal shooting, but his final miss is the one that will be remembered most because that shot was the difference between Memphis being up 1-0 or being down 0-1. In fairness to Morant, it must be noted that he scored 11 fourth quarter points to keep the Grizzlies alive, and he finished with a game-high 10 assists plus nine rebounds. Jaren Jackson Jr. had a playoff career-high 33 points, nailing hook shots in the paint while also connecting on 6-9 from three point range. De'Anthony Melton provided a spark with 14 points off of the bench and Brandon Clarke contributed 12 points plus nine rebounds, but the Grizzlies need more scoring/better shooting from Dillon Brooks (eight points, 3-13 field goal shooting) and Desmond Bane (nine points, 3-10 field goal shooting).
Many game stories focus on the fourth quarter--and this game had some key fourth quarter moments that deserve analysis--but the reality is that NBA games are often won or lost in the first half. Here, Memphis built a 42-29 lead early in the second quarter before a series of bad possessions at both ends of the court fueled a 10-0 Golden State run. The value of each possession in a playoff game should not be understated. The Grizzlies never enjoyed a double digit cushion the rest of the way, which set the stage for the Warriors being able to make just enough late game plays to win.
Instead of mentioning that the Grizzlies frittered away their 13 point lead, most game stories that discuss the first half at all will focus on what happened at the 1:18 mark of the second quarter: Clarke drove to the hoop, Draymond Green smacked him in the face, pulled him down by his jersey, and then reached out at the last second to brace Clarke's fall after fouling him twice on the same play. The game officials reviewed the play, and assessed a flagrant foul penalty 2 against Green, which meant that Green was automatically ejected. Green then ran around the court like a fool before eventually going to the locker room. I have never understood why players celebrate being ejected. A flagrant foul penalty 2 is distinguished by contact that is deemed "unnecessary and excessive," while a flagrant foul penalty 1 is assessed for contact that is determined to be unnecessary but not excessive. These are subjective determinations to some extent, but the officials look at the windup, impact, and follow through of a foul to determine if the foul is a common foul, a flagrant foul penalty 1, or a flagrant foul penalty 2. Contact above the neck area is deemed to be more serious--and more likely to be classified as a flagrant foul-- than contact below the neck (except for contact to the groin, of course). Green hit Clarke hard in the face, so there was clearly windup, impact, and follow through above the neck area. Green then yanked Clarke out of the air. The notion that Green should not get a flagrant foul penalty 2 because he did not just let Clarke hit the court with full force after fouling him twice makes no sense. Green had already done enough to earn an ejection before Clarke landed; if Green had not braced Clarke's fall, Green may have been looking at a suspension in addition to an ejection. If Green thinks that he is being unfairly targeted by the officials, then there is a simple solution for him: don't hit opponents in the face or groin. I guarantee that if he stops doing those two things he will stop being assessed flagrant fouls and ejections.
The Grizzlies led 54-53 before Green was ejected. They pushed that margin to six, 61-55, by halftime, but the Warriors actually did better in the second half with a big lineup than they did in the first half with a smaller lineup featuring Green at center. The Grizzlies usually win the rebounding battle, but the Warriors outrebounded them, 51-47. Six Warriors had more rebounds than Green, who finished with just four. An even more significant issue for the Grizzlies than not winning the rebounding battle is that the Grizzlies gave up several easy scoring opportunities to cutters. The Warriors deserve credit for being a team that moves well without the ball, but it was also apparent that the Grizzlies simply blew many defensive assignments. The rebounding and defensive issues also contributed to the Grizzlies playing at a slower than desirable pace; the Grizzlies are at their best when they get stops, control the boards, and then attack in transition before the opposing defense is set. Rebounding, defensive assignment discipline, and playing at a faster pace are three areas that the Grizzlies should be able to improve for game two and the rest of the series.
After the Grizzlies blew their double digit lead and after the Warriors went with a bigger second half lineup sans Green, the game was close the rest of the way. Thompson's three pointer with just under 37 seconds remaining put the Warriors up, 117-116. The Grizzlies should have pushed the ball up the court not only to try to score in transition but also to go for a two for one shot opportunity. Instead, the Grizzlies burned almost all 24 seconds off of the shot clock before Curry got a piece of Morant's layup attempt. The Grizzlies wasted an additional eight seconds before committing a foul, and then they lost nearly five more seconds before fouling Thompson, who is an excellent free throw shooter. Thompson missed both free throws, but after the second miss went out of bounds the officials were not able to determine who touched the ball last. Memphis controlled the ensuing jump ball, and called a timeout. The Grizzlies executed a wonderful inbounds play that resulted in Morant catching the ball on the move to the hoop. Morant made it all the way to the rim, but Thompson's contested hand influenced Morant to loft the shot too high, and it missed the mark as time expired. Morant stood in shocked disbelief by the basket stanchion as the Warriors celebrated.
The significance of not only winning game one but also stealing home court advantage should not be understated; the Grizzlies face an uphill battle now. However, the Grizzlies demonstrated during game one that there are matchup advantages that they can exploit throughout this series, and they also made some unforced errors that they are capable of correcting. Based on those matchup advantages, I predicted that Memphis would win this series in seven games. I expect Memphis to win game two, split the games at Golden State to reclaim home court advantage, and then take games five and seven at home in what may turn out to be the best and most competitive playoff series in 2022.
Labels: Draymond Green, Golden State Warriors, Ja Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr., Jordan Poole, Klay Thompson, Memphis Grizzlies, Stephen Curry
posted by David Friedman @ 2:08 AM
