The Los Angeles Lakers continued Las Vegas Summer League play on Friday night, although they were without their leader in Max Christie.
After going 2-1 in their first three games, the Lakers had a chance to make the Summer League playoffs if they beat the Grizzlies by 21 or more points. That was never in play though as the Lakers were beaten 100-69, dropping to 2-2 in Las Vegas.
The Lakers will play one more game this summer, although it’s won’t be in the postseason as that will consist of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Houston Rockets, Utah Jazz and Detroit Pistons.
It was all Grizzlies from the start in this one as they jumped out to a 13-0 lead with second-year big man Kenneth Lofton Jr. leading his team.
Colin Castleton finally got the Lakers on the scoreboard with a free throw 5.5 minutes into the game. Jalen Hood-Schifino then connected from deep for L.A.’s first field goal. The Grizzlies continued to pour it on, however, and led 24-9 at the end of the first.
LJ Figueroa and Bryce Hamilton provided a spark for the Lakers early in the second with some buckets, but the Lakers largely continued to struggle while Memphis stayed hot from deep to stretch its lead to 24.
After a Flagrant 1 foul call on Maxwell Lewis for a reckless closeout, the Lakers went into the halftime locker room with a steep 51-22 deficit.
Lewis began the third quarter with a layup, but not much changed for the Lakers as they continued to struggled offensively while the Grizzlies’ veterans like Lofton and David Roddy imposed their will.
With the game already out of reach at that point, the Lakers were just looking for some sort of positives to take away from the night and Lewis provided that with a monster poster dunk. Figueroa then one-upped him with an even more impressive poster dunk on a putback as the Thomas & Mack Center crowd erupted.
As entertaining as it was though, the Lakers still trailed 71-49 through three quarters.
Figueroa continued to be a source of energy for the Lakers in the fourth, giving the Lakers some hustle and offense while even doing the “too small” gesture on Lofton.
With the game already out of reach, some of the guys that need reps got some run to close out the game for L.A.
Memphis’ size and experience just proved to be too much for a young Lakers squad without its best player.
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