“My resume speaks for itself”

The duel between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Memphis Grizzlies was on fire, in part, due to the comments of the Memphis player, Dillon Brooks, but if there was one thing the Los Angeles team was clear about, it was that they would talk on the court and not off it. That’s how it went. The Lakers outscored Memphis 111-101 in Game 3 on Saturday night at Crypto.com Arena and put this first round postseason series 2-1 in their favor.

“My resume and what I’ve done for this league speaks for itself,” James said at a postgame news conference. “I don’t get carried away with those kinds of comments. At the end of the day my focus is on my teammates. I wanted to figure out how to beat the Memphis Grizzlies, not an individual on his team. If anyone knows me well, they know I’ve always been like that for me.”

Brooks has a history with LeBron James and isn’t afraid to speak his mind. At the end of Game 2, which the Grizzlies won, Brooks called LeBron old and said that he would only respect that opponent who scored 40 points for him.

Brooks appears to have been the victim of his own mental game as he was fouled flagrantly two and was ejected in the third quarter of the game after a punch to the crotch by LeBron.

“I don’t need to make any statement with my game,” added ‘El Rey’. “I’ve been playing for too long. We only had a chance to play well at home to win and we’ll look to repeat that in Game 4.”

Brooks added fuel to the fire and the Lakers came out completely fired up from minute one of the game. They were physical, aggressive and intense to the point that they outscored the Grizzlies 35-9 in the first quarter. From the start they took a significant advantage and never let it go.

“The energy (of the crowd) played an important role,” Anthony Davis said after his big night. “We came out with a sense of urgency because it was an important game after we were flat in Game 2. We fed into people who hadn’t experienced a postseason game (without (pandemic) restrictions) at home in a long time. We had a purpose. to be excellent both offensively and defensively and that pushed us throughout the game”.

Ja Morant returned to Memphis after a hand injury sidelined him from Game 2. The Grizzlies star scored 45 points, finished with a double-double with 13 assists, but it wasn’t enough to offset the shaky start to the game.

“He’s very good, that’s right, that guy is very good,” LeBron said of Morant. “He can attack the rim so well that you try to have bodies there and hinder him to force it from the perimeter. Well today he made six triples, he is a player who, if he gets drunk, can do whatever he wants offensively. When great players have that inertia there is nothing you can do to stop them. We just have to keep scoring.”

For the Lakers, Anthony Davis had a spectacular night of 31 points and 17 rebounds, LeBron James contributed 25 points and Rui Hachimura (16 points) contributed double figures off the bench for the third straight game.

The Lakers look to continue the positive energy and electrifying support of their people on Monday at home for the fourth of the series.