After a stressful and messy win over the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Play-In Tournament, the Los Angeles Lakers will now face off against the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round of the 2023 NBA Playoffs.
It’s quite the turnaround for the Lakers, who looked dead in the water at the start of the 2022-23 season, going 2-10 and being given a minuscule chance to make the postseason. However, they’ve now got a shot to compete for a championship and it’s an opportunity that the team can’t afford to take for granted.
Unfortunately, their matchup against Memphis is going to be a tough one because of the depth of talent they employ. Anthony Davis offered his thoughts on the series against the Grizzlies ahead of Game 1 on Sunday.
“Yeah. Good team. Young, scrappy. Obviously, Ja [Morant] head of the snake. Jaren Jackson. Obviously, they have guys there’s not going to be playing. Guys out, Stephen [Adams]. Brandon Clarke, but they’re still a good team. They’re there for a reason, even without Ja they were winning basketball games. So they’re a tough team. We’ll do our normal scouts and prep work for them. But it’s gonna be a fun interesting series.”
Like LeBron James, who was able to break down the Memphis roster in his postgame presser, Davis understands the kind of threats the Grizzlies have and how they can cause trouble for the Lakers. Everything of course begins with Ja Morant who is a menace getting into the paint, so Davis and the rest of the perimeter players will need to be on high alert every possession down.
Although fans might look at Los Angeles’ 2-1 regular season record against Memphis and feel optimistic about their chances, the truth is key players were missing in each game. Without full squads available, it’s hard to draw any conclusions about what their first-round series might look like.
The only thing the Lakers can do is continue playing hard on the defensive end and hopefully finding ways to score against a stingy Grizzlies defense. It should be a thrilling series, one that hopefully the purple and gold find themselves on the favorable end when it’s finished.
Darvin Ham puts onus on coaching staff to get Anthony Davis ball in better positions
Davis made quite the two-way impact against the Timberwolves but also went through stretches where he struggled to score. Following the narrow win, Darvin Ham put the onus on him and his coaching staff to get Davis the ball in more advantageous positions.
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