Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers continued to roll as they defeated the Memphis Grizzlies 109-108 in a tightly contested matchup.
The win pushed the team’s winning streak to seven games — their second one of the 2019-20 NBA season — and improved their record to 14-2. LeBron James and Davis once again led the way for the Lakers as they combined for 52 points and came up huge down the stretch with several clutch buckets.
Los Angeles looked flat to start as they turned the ball over several times within the first minutes of the game and could not get anything going on both ends of the floor. But much like they have during the new season, they turned it up in the second half and did just enough to earn the win.
Despite the victory, Davis admitted the tough circumstances should not excuse their level of play, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“Fight through it. We had to fight. Hell of a team, they compete, they played well tonight, shot the ball extremely well, they gave us everything they got. We’re gonna have games like this where we were everywhere. It’s a back-to-back, but we can’t let that be an excuse. We were terrible defensively tonight, but we’re gonna find a way to win. Guys made big shots, big plays defensively and as a good team just gotta find a way to win and we was able to do that tonight.”
The whole team — including Davis — seemed to be going through the motions in the first half as they allowed Memphis to shoot several uncontested threes as they built up a double-digit lead. Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr. proved to be headaches as they took turns exploiting a tired Los Angeles defense either at the rim or outside beyond the arc.
However, the team’s collective veteran experience proved to be too much for the Grizzlies as Davis and James were able to finally get going late and close the game out for the Los Angeles. It is wins like these that further cement the notion they are a real contender and should be treated as such as they arguably had no business winning against Memphis.
With the Lakers continuing to gel on the court, is becoming more and more apparent that they should be favored in nearly every game they play the rest of the way.
They get another enticing matchup when they take on a struggling San Antonio Spurs team to continue their four-game road trip.