Lakers haunted by turnovers in loss to Grizzlies.
MEMPHIS — The Lakers' 26 turnovers weren't enough to overcome in Tuesday’s loss to the Grizzlies, falling to Memphis 121–109 to drop their season record to 29–33.
In their first game without LeBron James, who's out for two weeks to be re-evaluated for his foot injury, the Lakers' hopes to stay afloat in his absence took a turn in a short-handed battle that also had point guard D’Angelo Russell still out of the lineup with an ankle sprain.
“You got arguably the best player to ever play the game, you’re going to feel his absence.” said head coach Darvin Ham on LeBron.
The Lakers were outscored 47–35 in the third quarter, bringing back some woes that have haunting them all year with slow starts coming out of the half. Grizzlies’ Ja Morant took advantage of an out-of-sync Lakers defense, scoring 28 of his 39 points in the third quarter and missing just two (10-for-12) shots throughout the quarter.
Anthony Davis was the Lakers’ leading scorer with 28 points on 47% (9-for-19) shooting from the field, adding 19 rebounds and five blocks in 35 minutes.
Lonnie Walker IV got more minutes in the rotation with the loss of LeBron and Russell in the lineup, making most of his opportunities, finishing second on the team in scoring with 21 off the bench, knocking down five shots on ten attempts (50%) from three.
“Just stay ready. You can't be too high, you can't be too low,” said Walker IV on staying staying ready for his name to be called.
Austin Reaves finished with 17 points on 4-for-7 (57%) shooting from deep, adding seven assists, two rebounds, one steal, and one block in 27 minutes off the bench.
“That was the game. Any time you turn the ball over 26 times,” said Reaves.
With Tuesday’s loss, the Lakers move back to 12th place in the Western Conference. Putting them just one to two games from the 9th and 10th play-in spot and three games from the 8th-seed.
The Lakers’ next matchup comes on Wednesday in their second game of a back-to-back against the Oklahoma City Thunder at 5:00 p.m. on Spectrum SportsNet.
