Los Angeles Lakers Break the Stubborn Memphis Grizzlies, 117-105

The Los Angeles Lakers posted a win over the Memphis Grizzlies tonight, starting the second part of the season successfully. Frank Vogel’s guys beat the young guests from Tennessee 117-105, but had to be on watch throughout the entire time. The Grizzlies never backed down and kept coming after the hosts.

“We know that this team played last night,” said Anthony Davis after the match, revealing that his teammates knew that the rivals are tired.

The purple and gold never trailed in this match, but there were sequences when Memphis had momentum and was threatening. During the third period, guests outscored Lakers 36-24, erasing the huge deficit from the start of the same, which stood at 25 points, 68-43.

With 9:15 left in the game, Morant and the boys got down to 88-84, but that turned out to be the best they could. Lakers once again pulled away to 15 points, and that was about it.

Once again, LeBron James and Anthony Davis led the Lakers. LBJ had 32 points with 7 assists and was 10-for-17 from the field. Davis added 28 buckets, 13 boards, and tremendous 7 blocks.

“Another Defensive Player of the Year type of night,” said Frank Vogel about AD’s performance.

These two had 27 free throws combined. Although some of them were forced, awarded solely due to their names, and the fact that the Grizzlies are young and don’t have the credibility among the referees, it needs to be pointed out that both James and Davis were extremely aggressive on the rim.

“My job is tome come out every night and play hard, get the team plays hard, play great on defense and try to get wins,” Davis spoke about his stats in this one.

Avery Bradley had 14 buckets, while Kentavious Caldwell-Pope added 12.

On the other side, we saw solid productivity from the guys off the bench. Two of them had double-doubles, Gorgui Dieng with 14 points and 10 boards, and Brandon Clarke with the same figures.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqm45kWjl1M

Meanwhile, Josh Jackson added 20 points, which was a team-high. The starters, apart from Ja Morant who had 17 points and weren’t in the mood for playing that much. Whether it was because of fatigue, or the Lakers’ good defense, we can’t quite tell, but there was no usual pace from the Grizzlies’ leaders.

Jarren Jackson had just 7 points, same as Dillon Brooks. Valanciunas had 8 with 11 boards.

This was the second straight defeat for Memphis (28-28), who lost against the Kings at home last night. They are still 8th in the West, but the heat is turning up on them with several tams waiting for their chance to jump over Taylor Jenkins guys.

“I have a great deal of respect for what they’ve been able to (accomplish)” to this point of the season,” said Vogel about his tonight’s opponent.

Up next, they will be staying in LA, as they have a clash with the Clippers on Monday, and after that head for Houston to meet with the Rockets this Wednesday.

On the other side, the Lakers (42-12) continued where they left off before the All-Star break. Their next two games will be very interesting and the attention for them is massive. The first one will be nationally televised and it is against the purple and gold’s biggest enemy, the Boston Celtics, this Sunday. After that, on Tuesday, LBJ and the company awaits Zion and the Pelicans.