After a rough month of December, the Los Angeles Lakers were looking to get back on track to start the new year when they hosted the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night.
Both teams were missing a number of key contributors due to injury, but it was the Lakers that came out on top with a 128-121 win to improve their record to 21-11.
Marcus Smart kicked off the scoring with a 3-pointer against his former team, and then Christian Koloko had a dunk against a former team of his own.
After that though it was all Lakers to start as Luka Doncic had four straight points and then Jake LaRavia hit a triple, forcing the Grizzlies to take a timeout trailing 12-4.
LaRavia is another guy that was taking it to his former team as a thunderous dunk in transition gave him nine points and put L.A. up double digits.
Memphis’ bench brought them some live as Cam Spencer and Santi Aldama came in and immediately hit triples. That helped them get back in the game, although LeBron James and Nick Smith Jr. ended the first quarter with back-to-back 3-pointers to give L.A. a 39-31 lead.
James was playing with energy to start the second as the Lakers reestablished their double-digit lead. With Doncic on the bench, Smart was running point and found Jaxson Hayes and Jarred Vanderbilt for easy buckets down low.
LaRavia’s big first half continued as he was making hustle plays and finishing layups in transition. Again though, the Lakers let go of the rope with the Grizzlies getting hot from deep again to take their first lead.
LaRavia ended an 18-0 run by the Grizzlies with a triple, and then James had a strong close to the half to send L.A. into the locker room with a 66-60 lead.
The Grizzlies began the second half on a 6-0 run to immediately tie the game once again.
There were a lot of fouls calls in the third quarter, which killed the flow of the game a bit. Doncic started to get going offensively again though with the Lakers trying to build the lead back up. After a spurt by Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to end the third though, the game went into the fourth tied at 96.
The teams exchanged buckets for the first half of the final quarter, setting up for what looked to be an exciting finish.
Hayes brought some energy to the Lakers with a thunderous dunk on a feed from James, and then Vanderbilt and LaRavia did the same with triples. L.A. started to get some separation at that point and then James finished a layup for good measure to close it out.
What’s next for the Lakers…
This was the first of two straight meetings between these teams as the Lakers will host the Grizzlies again on Sunday night before heading out on a road trip.
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