On Sunday afternoon, Ja Morant’s rested Memphis Grizzlies take on LeBron James’ Los Angeles Lakers in Game 1 of their Western Conference first-round playoff series.
The seventh-seeded Lakers defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves in overtime in Tuesday’s play-in game, while the second-seeded Grizzlies have had a week off to get ready for the postseason.
James (30 focuses, 10 bounce back) and Anthony Davis (24 focuses, 15 sheets) kept twofold duplicates in the Lakers’ 108-102 win against the Wolves.
The Los Angeles defense held Minnesota to 12 points in the fourth quarter and four points in overtime, and Davis added three blocked shots.
Eight times since March 3, Davis has scored 30 or more points, contributing significantly to Los Angeles’ surge in the final month of the regular season. Over that time, the Lakers went 13-6, putting them in a good position to host the play-in game.
Their reward is a meeting with a Memphis team that won 51 games during the regular season and finished second in the West by two games. However, on March 7, the Lakers defeated the Thunder 112-103 to win the season series 2-1.
In that game, Davis scored 30 points and grabbed 22 rebounds despite missing James and Morant.
Morant is the impetus of the Memphis offense, averaging group highs of 26.2 places and 8.1 helps per game. D’Angelo Russell, a late-season acquisition for the Lakers, however, stated that he “would rather talk about (Los Angeles)” when asked about facing Morant.
Russell did admit that “containing Ja Morant” was the key to slowing Memphis down.
Without one of its stoppers, Memphis will attempt to contain Los Angeles on the other end. With a knee injury that has kept him out since January, Steven Adams, who averaged 11.5 rebounds per game during the regular season, could miss the playoffs.
As a result, Jaren Jackson Jr., one of the three finalists announced on Friday for the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award, will have to deal with Davis more.
Jackson contributed significantly to Memphis’ finishing the regular season with the NBA’s lowest opponent field-goal percentage (.453) and an average of a league-high 3.0 blocks per game.
In the absence of Adams, Xavier Tillman Sr. will be asked to perform some of the defensive responsibilities. In his 29 games played this season, Tillman averaged 9.7 points and 6.7 rebounds per game.
Memphis held the No. 2 seed last year, as well, yet bowed out in the Western Conference elimination rounds with a 4-2 series misfortune to possible boss Golden State.
During the 2020-21 postseason, Phoenix eliminated the Lakers in the first round, leaving them out of the playoffs last year.
