The Los Angeles Lakers won Game 3 111-101, but the late comeback should give the Memphis Grizzlies hope. The Grizzlies still face a small dilemma. How to deal with Dillon Brooks in the upcoming games?
Los Angeles Lakers: Dillon Brooks helps out
The media, of course, jumped at Brooks’ quotes after Game 2 and it was jazzed up accordingly for Game 3 as well. Here, Brooks, the loudmouth, there LeBron James, one of the greatest basketball players of all time. Ultimately, however, this should not be the storyline about the Canadian.
Yes, Brooks can annoy LeBron on defense, but he can’t stop him. It also doesn’t need the 40 points that Brooks demanded from LeBron to gain his respect. James did well to keep this topic as small as possible, simply because it wasn’t a real topic.
The key question is not whether Brooks can stop James, but to what extent Brooks can hit enough shots not to damage his team offensively. Game 3 was another reminder of that. The Canadian had actually taken the most throws of any Grizzlies player (13) before the break, the Lakers secretly said “thank you.”
In 71 minutes, Brooks has now sunk 13 shots on 40 attempts (32.5 percent) and has just 5 assists to his credit. Every Brooks shot is a win for LA, and if the Lakers had an opportunity to have the flagrant-2 foul revised for the forward, they probably should have done it. That’s how damaging Brooks was to the Grizzlies’ offense.
It’s the same old story with Brooks. His defensive impact is undisputed, but the shot selection remains hair-raising. At 16 seconds on the shot clock, a “shooter” like him just shouldn’t take attempts like this. Morant, Desmond Bane, Jaren Jackson – the Grizzlies have powerful offensive players, but they hardly got a chance in the first half.
Instead, the Lakers bet that Brooks would keep shooting even after misses and they were right. Brooks may even face a ban for hitting LeBron’s groin, although no one on the Lakers side asked for it after the game (smart!).
In any case, Morant later defended his teammate and didn’t want to hear anything about the sometimes harsh criticism of the past few days. “He works his butt off. A lot of teams that hate him would still like to have what he can bring and how he thrives in that role on their team.” And Brooks? He decided not to give an interview after the game…
Memphis Grizzlies: More shooting by Luke Kennard?
Incidentally, James was subsequently checked by Xavier Tillman, who is fully in the series after a weak first game and LeBron also cleaned up properly in the fourth quarter. That’s definitely something the Grizzlies coach should keep in mind, even though potential foul issues might arise.
In general, Jenkins didn’t cut the happiest figure in this game. After the Brooks ejection, the coach then relied on rookie David Roddy, who has been very unstable in recent weeks. Memphis needed offense, though, and if the Grizzlies have anything else on the wing it’s Luke Kennard. There wasn’t much to lose at that point anyway.
Of course, with him there’s always a risk that the Lakers will embroil him in any action and take advantage of this matchup, but in a game when Memphis went haywire for a long time, the regular season’s best three-pointer could have helped. Ultimately, Kennard didn’t sink a single three in 25 minutes (4 points, 2/4) but ended the game with a team-best +6.
Why was that? On the one hand Kennard was on the field for the late push when Morant exploded, on the other hand the Lakers didn’t dare to leave Kennard, Bane and Jackson Jr. open. Lo and behold, Morant had more space and even brought the Grizzlies down to -8 again.
Memphis Grizzlies: Yes Morant with an all-timer
In general: “This boy can do something,” LeBron said the obvious when asked about Morant. 45 points, 24 of them in the fourth quarter – just days after a hand injury that may still not have fully healed. The guard wore a small padded sling on his throwing hand. Maybe he should always do that, because six three-pointers converted meant setting a career high.
Morant felt it and almost made it exciting again in the fourth quarter. “If he scores from outside then he gets to a level where he can really do whatever he wants on offense,” James continued. And that’s how it was, the Lakers found no means, even the strong Anthony Davis was powerless against Morant’s speed and a few times too late.
22 straight points marked Morant’s colors in the fourth quarter, topped only by two players in NBA playoff history – LeBron James (25 in 2007) and Kobe Bryant (23 in 2010).
Memphis Grizzlies need more transition
The guard scored some of these points in the fast break, which was hardly a factor for Memphis in the 36 minutes before. The Grizzlies aren’t going to beat the Lakers with half-court basketball, LeBron and Davis are too good for that. It was no coincidence that Memphis came dangerously close in the fourth quarter precisely because they generated stops and got going.
Neither Lakers can match the Grizzlies star’s speed, and the Grizzlies will need more of that as the series progresses, especially if the three still doesn’t come (just 33 percent). There were 8 points in transition in the final section, 19 over the entire game (LAL: 18).
Lakers: The shooting is worrying
Speaking of shooting. The Lakers have not covered themselves in glory in this regard either. Only seven converted threes (28 attempts) are not a recipe for success in winning a series, in the three games the Lakers scratch almost 33 percent. If you then subtract the red-hot Rui Hachimura (9/12 in the series), the success rate is just 25 percent.
Especially with LeBron almost nothing works (4/20), things don’t look much better with D’Angelo Russell (6/21), who at least showed improving form after a weak second game. The Lakers are leading 2-1 thanks to their defense and two monster games by Davis, but there is still a lot of room for improvement offensively.
NBA Playoffs – Grizzlies vs. Lakers: The series at a glance
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2023-04-23 08:30:00
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