After Sunday’s 128-112 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers in Memphis, the Grizzlies find themselves down 1-0 in the best-of-7 series.
The Lakers won the battle on the boards and in second-chance scoring (22 points) and scored 26 points off of fast breaks. Los Angeles shot 27-of-40 from the field (.675) and 11-of-19 from 3-point range (.579) in the second half and outscored Memphis 69-47.
Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins on the reasons for the loss: “We didn’t execute the priorities of the game plan. Get back, execute half court defense and get rebounds.”
But he did have a positive message for his team after the disappointment. “I told the guys, ‘Hey, we talked about this before the playoffs started at the beginning of the week, it’s first to four. It’s one game at a time.’ We’ve shown a lot of resiliency in previous playoffs and throughout the season. We’ve just got to focus on that. Come out, just continue to put our work in each day. We did some good things tonight. We did some not so good things tonight. We’ve just got to clean it up, and we’ve just got to keep taking it one game at a time. Guys were in really good spirits. Obviously, disappointing. You’re definitely pissed off after a game when you take a loss to start off a series, but we’ve been in this position before. We’ve just got to focus on tomorrow’s day.”
More Injuries
After landing hard on his right hand, Ja Morant missed the final five minutes of the game. It appeared that Morant landed on his wrist after colliding with Los Angeles’ Anthony Davis on a drive to the basket. The 23-year-old frantically hurried to the locker room as he grasped his right hand. He returned to the bench with his hand and wrist covered but did not return to the game.
Jenkins told reporters that X-rays for Morant’s hand were negative and that more evaluations would occur over the next two days before Game 2. However after the game, Morant acknowledged that his status for Game 2 might be in jeopardy and that his pain level was about a 10.
“It’s tough, man,” Morant said somberly. “Especially with everything I’ve been through, pretty much this season. My main focus is to be out there for my guys. Now another incident where that’s pretty much in jeopardy. It’s pretty much how much I can tolerate. If I feel like I can go out there, be somewhat myself, I’ll probably play. But I don’t want to do anything to hurt the team. [It’s] very tough, stressful. I’m pretty much taking in what happened. I don’t know, man, I’m pretty much numb. Not even surprised. It’s one thing after another.”
The Unicorn
Jaren Jackson, Jr. had a good game. He put up a game-high 31 points, five rebounds, four assists, and two blocks.
