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Four Reasons Lakers Should Dominate Grizzlies & Win First Round Matchup

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Overall, the Lakers and Grizzlies appear to be two fairly evenly matched teams, with the 2nd seed Grizzlies starting out as slight favorites over the 7th seed Lakers for their Sunday first round playoff game in Memphis.

The two teams met three times during the regular season, with the Lakers winning two out of three but never with all three stars. LeBron missed two of the three games, Davis one of the three, and Morant one of the three.
Since the trade deadline, the Lakers 115.6 OffRtg is #14, their 110.8 DefRtg is #2, and their +4.8 NetRtg #6 in the league while the Grizzlies 116.7 OffRtg is #12, their 113.0 DefRtg is #10, and their +3.7 NetRtg is #9 in the league.

While the Grizzlies have home court advantage, the Lakers are not only finally getting fully healthy but also peaking at exact right time. Here are four reasons why Lakers should dominate and beat the Grizzlies in six.

1. Superstars

In the NBA, superstars win championships and as dynamic and exciting as the Grizzlies’ Ja Morant is as a superstar, there’s just no way he can match the combined superstar firepower of LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

Where the Lakers superstar advantage dominates is in the matchups. While the Lakers will struggle to defend Ja Morant, the Grizzlies do not have the size or individua defenders to slow down Anthony Davis or LeBron James.
Jaren Jackson, Jr. is not going to outplay Anthony Davis or Dillon Brooks keep up with LeBron James but Jarred Vanderbilt and Rui Hachimura are the long, physical, athletic wings who can make Morant work for his shots.

In the end, a healthy and rested James and Davis will be too much for the young Grizzlies. Lakers will steal one of the two games in Memphis, sweep the two in L.A, lose Game 5 in Memphis but then win Game 6 in L.A.

2. Experience

Experience is a prerequisite to winning in the playoffs and there is no way 23-year old Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson, Jr. can match the chanpionship expierence of 38-year old LeBron James and 30-year old Anthony Davis.

James and Davis proved in the bubble in 2020 that they could carry a team to the NBA championship. Now they are finally healthy and ready to show they’re still the best superstar duo on the planet by winning their 18th title.
Morant and Jackson, Jr. will have an uphill challenge to defeat what is a dramatically better Lakers team than the one that aready beat them two out of three times this season. Missing Adams and Clarke is not going to help.

Bottom line, the veteran playoff and championship experience of LeBron James and Anthony Davis gives the Lakers a big advantage over an untested Grizzies roster that just won their first ever playoff series last season.

3. Health

Every NBA season proves a player’s greastest ability is still his availability. Fortunately for the Lakers, for the very first time this season, they are finally and completely healthy with all 15 players on the roster available.

That means the Lakers will play their best starting lineup for just the eighth time this Sunday. It means they’ll have Mo Bamba, their backup center for the first time in over a month. Lakers are getting healthy at the right time.
Meanwhile, the Memphis Grizzlies will be missing their starting center in Steven Adams and key backup forward off the bench in Brandon Clarke. Xavier Tillman is the undersized backup who will start for Steven Adams

The Grizzlies may have the better record and home court advantage but the Los Angeles Lakers are now 100% healthy whereas the Memphis Grizzlies will be missing two important front court players in Adams and Clarke.

4. Momentum

Momentum could be the x-factor that favors LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and the new-look Lakers over the belicose, rebelluous Ja Morant and the ‘show-me-some-respect’ Memphis Grizzlies in their first round matchup.

LeBron, AD, and the Lakers are on a vision-quest to rise from the ashes of a 2–10 start and win their league-leading 18th NBA championship whereas Ja and the Grizzlies just want to salvage something from this horrid season.
Many had written off the Grizzlies before the Morant situation was resolved without irrepable damage but the team has competed and managed to stop the bleeding. Whether they can beat the Lakers though is another question.

Right now, the Lakers are positioned for a deep playoff run that could lead to their 18th NBA championship. They’re finally healthy and have what could be considered to be a favorable path to title. That’s momentum.

Three Reasons Lakers Can Win Their 18th NBA Championship This Year?

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After a dismal start in a season of parity, the remade Los Angeles Lakers have overcome long odds and are a play-in game win away from becoming one of the most dangerous 7th seeds in the history of the NBA playoffs.

The Lakers’ playoff path to their league best 18th NBA championship will begin tomorrow night when, as the 7th seed, they host the 8th seed Minnesota Timberwoves in a Western Conferenece 7/8 Play-In game.
While the Lakers hoped to win the 6th seed and avoid the risk of running into a hot-shooting team and losing in the Play-In, they’re still supremely confident they can beat the Wolves on Tuesday to make the NBA playoffs.

Despite a terrible start and a tumultuous season, the Lakers finally have a healthy LeBron James and Anthony Davis and believe their new look lineup and rotation is capable of winning their 18th NBA championship this year.
Parity has opened the doors wide-open for a half dozen NBA teams who think they can win it all this year. The Lakers consider themselves to be one of those teams despite having to participate in the Play-In Tournament.

So let’s take a deeper dive into how parity has leveled the playing field in the West, how the Lakers full roster is finally healthy and available, and how the team’s 7th seed is giving them a favorable championship path.

1. Parity Has Leveled Playing Field

The only reason the Los Angeles Lakers were able to keep their playoff hopes alive until the trade deadline and despite a poor start to the season was the near complete parity that leveled the playing field in the West.

Besides keeping the Lakers playoff window open, parity has also made it abundantly clear that there is no obvious favorite to win the championship this season. Instead, a half dozen NBA teams now claim to be contenders.
In the West, the favorites are probably the Phoenix Suns followed by the Los Angeles Clippers and Lakers. In the East, the favorites are likely the Milwaukee Bucks followed by the Boston Celtics and Philadephia 76ers.

The lack of a truly dominant team, the large number of superstars recovering from major injuries, and the crazy seeding caused by the parity has made it difficut to predict what’s going to happen in these playoffs.
Frankly, every contending team has weaknesses and vulnerabilities that can be taken advantage of and has at times during the past season had periods of great struggle. This is as wide-open as the NBA has ever been.

Finally at full strength after a plague of injuries and a late midseason makeover, the Lakers are now ready to use their new starting lineup and deep and diverse roster to take full advantage of the parity in the West.

2. New Look Roster Is Finally Healthy

The primary reason the Lakers believe they can win their 18th NBA championship this year is their full roster after their trade deadline makeover is healthy and available for the first time this season.

Because of injuries to both superstars and key rotation players and late moves at the trade deadline, the Lakers have only been able to play the above starting lineup in five games this season, winning four of them.
Since the trade deadline, the Lakers have posted an 18–8 record, second best in the league. Their 115.6 offensive rating since the trade deadline ranks 14th, 110.8 defensive rating ranks 2nd, and +4.8 net rating ranks 6th.

With LeBron James and Anthony Davis finally healthy and the trade deadline moves creating a deeper, more diverse roster, the Lakers should be one of the most dangerous 7th seeds in the history of the NBA playoffs.
In retrospect, Rob Pelinka and the Lakers front office deserve kuddos for making the right moves at the deadline and Darvin Ham and his coaching staff deserve praise for getting the new roster playing at an elite level.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ new starting lineup has been a great success. Russell, Reaves, Vanderbilt, James, and Davis have appeared in 64 minutes in 7 games and have posted a 123.5 OffRtg, 103.0 DefRtg, and +20.6 NetRtg.

3. Championship Path Is Favorable

Should the Lakers win the 7/8 Play-In Tournament game next Tuesday against the Pelicans or Timberwolves, their path to the NBA Finals per the sports books would likely include the Grizzlies, Warriors, and Suns.

Contrast that with the path the Lakers would have faced had they beaten the Clippers and ended up as 5th seed. Then they would have had to face the Suns, Nuggets, and Grizzlies, which is a far more difficult gauntlet.
The Lakers could easily find themselves eliminated by the Suns in the first round had they been the 5th seed. Now, as the 7th seed, they will face the 2nd seed Memphis Grizzlies, whom they beat two out of three this year.

Should the Lakers prevail over the Grizzlies in the first round, their likely second round opponent would be the Warriors, another team against which they match up well, having beaten them three out of four times this year.
A win over the Warriors would most likely catapult the Los Angeles Lakers into a Western Conference Finals with the Phoenix Suns, whom like the Lakers could suddenly find themselves fully healthy for the playoffs.

No fairy tale story is complete without a great ending, which for the Los Angeles Lakers would be to defeat the Boston Celtics in the 2022–23 NBA Finals to win what would be their league leading 18th NBA championship.

Anthony Davis Dominates Wolves As Lakers Continue To Push for 6th Seed

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The Lakers’ win over the Wolves last night included everything their fans and coaches could want, including Davis continuing to take the torch from James and the purple and gold putting on offensive and defensive clinics.

The 39–38 Lakers are currently in 7th place in the West, 1.5 games behind the 41–37 Warriors and Clippers, who are essentially tied for 6th and 5th seeds in the West. Lakers own tie-breaker over Warriors but not Clippers.
Lakers have 5 games left: @ Rockets, @ Jazz, @ Clippers, vs Suns, vs Jazz. Warriors have 4 games left: @ Nuggets, vs Thunder, @ Kings, @ Blazers. Clippers have 4 games left: @ Pelicans, vs Lakers, vs Blazers, @ Suns.

Last night’s game was the Lakers’ biggest win of the season. With Davis again playing like an MVP and James slowly working his way back into game shape after missing over a month, the Lakers wil be a playoff nightmare.
Like Isaiah Thomas said, there’s no team in the West that wants to face the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs. Right now, it looks like the likely #3 seed Kings are the team the #6 seed Lakers would play in first round.

With just 4 games to go, the Lakers right now have a lock on the 7th seed at worst and a good chance to move up to the #6 seed and get a week off for injured superstars LeBron James and Anthony Davis to rest and recover.
The Lakers can expect a lot of strategic positioning moves over the last few games as teams try to win or lose games to avoid having to play L.A. in the first round of the playoffs. Going to be interesting to see what teams do.

With the West wide open, the Lakers sent a message to the rest of the NBA with their dominating win last night on the road against the Timberwolves: Expect the 2023 NBA Championship to go through the Los Angeles Lakers.

Anthony Davis Takes Torch from LeBron James

Anthony Davis’ injury woes the past three seasons have led many Lakers fans to lose faith that he could ever prove to be good or healthy enough to take the torch from LeBron James as the Lakers leading prime superstar.

With James still working to get back to superstar status after being out for a month, Anthony Davis came to the rescue again, taking over and carrying the Lakers on his back for a second straight MVP-quality performance.
Anthony Davis not only led the Lakers to the team’s biggest win of the season but he did it on a bum ankle that he sprained early in the third quarter just as the Lakers were surging to get back into the game.

I remember thinking as the game went to commercial that this might be the end of the Lakers’ season and wondering whether this also might be the injury that finally forced the Lakers to consider trading Anthony Davis.
Fortunately, Davis was able to walk off the injury and elevated his play to another level as the Lakers halfcourt defense shut down the Timberwolves and the Lakers closed the game by relentlessly going to AD in the post.

If the Lakers are going to win their 18th NBA championship this season, it will be because Anthony Davis finally elevates his game to MVP level and at last takes the torch from LeBron James and the Lakers become his team.

New Lakers’ Starting Lineup Sizzles

The Los Angeles Lakers’ new-look starting lineup of Russell, Reaves, Vanderbilt, James, and Davis has now played together for 25 minutes and posted a sizzling 132.0 OffRtg, stifling 108.5 DefRtg, and +23.5 NetRtg.

The new-look starting lineup provides the Lakers with a balanced two-way lineup that possesses excellent size, length, athleticism, and versatility while balancing the team’s need for shooting, playmaking, and defense.
Russell and Reaves provide the Lakers with a backcourt that can shoot, playmake, and defend. Davis, James, and Vanderbilt provide the Lakers with a front court that can switch and defend every position on the court.

As the Lakers head into the playoffs, Ham is also smartly narrowing his rotation down to 8 key players, the five starters plus Schröder, Hachimura, and Gabriel with additional spot minutes from Brown, Jr. and Beasley.
The only possible change could be the re-insertion of backup center Mo Bamba into the rotation. While Gabriel has been playing well, getting Bamba back would give the Lakers another desperately needed big man.

The Lakers greatest challenge to successfully finishing the season is health. Rob Pelinka’s moves at the trade deadline clearly gave the Lakers a major roster upgrade. The only question is whether the trades came too late.

Lakers’ Defense Dominates Timberwolves

After trailing the Wolves 65–55 at halftime, the Lakers essentially came out and shut Minnesota down, holding them to just 18 points in the 3rd quarter and just 18 in the fourth quarter plus 10 garbage points in last two minutes.

With Anthony Davis, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Rui Hachimura protecting the rim in the second half, the Lakers turned the Timberwolves into a jump shooting team as they went from down 10 to up 7 to start 4th quarter.
Besides Davis and Vanderbilt, Shroder, Hachimura, and Gabriel all had outstanding second halves as they led Lakers’ dominant defensive charge, making steals, deflecting passes, blocking shots, and taking charges.

Overall, the third quarter was probably the best defensive quarter the Lakers have had all year long. Ironically, right in the middle of this great 3rd quarter defensive run was when Anthony Davis twisted his ankle.
If there was a moment this season when everything hung in the balance, it was there in the third quarter when AD went down in pain holding onto his ankle. Fortunately, AD said later he was playing Sunday for sure.

Since the trade deadline, the Los Angeles Lakers’ 110.3 defensive ranking was #1 in the entire league. They also lead the league in rebounding and rank best in the NBA in defending without sending opponents to the line.

Lakers’ Offense Feeds AD To Close Game

One of the major traits of a great NBA coach is the ability to find weakness in the other team’s defense and then relentlessly attack that weakness until the other team makes an adjustment. Darvin Ham is learning that fast.

Once the Lakers had built a 10-point lead over the Timberwolves, they displayed some of their best offensive discipline we’ve seen this season as they consistently got the ball to Anthony Davis where he could score at will.
So many times over the last three seasons, we’ve seen the Lakers find an opening in the opponent’s defense only to ignore it going forward and start playing iso-ball with LeBron or Anthony rather than running a set play.

Last night, we saw the opposite. Even though he was limping a little from his twisted ankle, the Lakers either ran pick-and-rolls to get AD easy dunks or floaters or down-picks so he could catch the ball moving to the basket.
Best of all, Russell and Schröder never let the Wolves off the hook. Instead, every single time down the court they set up plays to get the ball to AD, often coming off a down-pick and/or rolling to the hoop for an easy shot.

The ability to be hyper-focused and successful in getting Anthony Davis the ball to close out games was a huge development in the Lakers’ half-court schemes that should help them in those critical end game situations.

Four Reasons Why Lakers Must Win 6th Seed and Avoid Play-In Tourney

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After being on life support for first 76 games of the regular season, thanks to parity the #8 Los Angeles Lakers are perfectly positioned with 6 games to go to jump the #7 Wolves and #6 Warriors and win the #6 seed in the West.

Tomorrow night, the #8 Lakers visit the #7 Timberwolves in a game that could catapult Los Angeles past Minnesota to take over the #7 seed in the West, getting home court advantage in the Play-In Game for 7th seed.
A win tomorrow night would also leave the Lakers 1 loss from being able to use their tie-breaker to knock Golden State into the Play-In Tournament and steal the #6 seed in the West and guaranteed playoff spot from them.

After a season filled with the constant pressure of ‘must win’ games, the last thing the Lakers want at this point in the season is to be forced to win one or two crucial games in the Play-In Tourney to make the NBA playoffs.
The Lakers will be under intense win-or-go-home pressure for each of their next 6 games while still facing a daunting challenge trying to reintegrate LeBron James into a lineup that finally learned how to win without him.

Here are four compelling reasons why the Los Angeles Lakers desperately need to win the 6th seed in the West over the next 6 games to avoid having to participate in what is likely to be a tough, gruelling Play-In Tournament.

1. 6th Seed Guarantees Playoff Spot

The biggest benefit of winning the 6th seed in the West is the team is one of the six teams who are guaranteed a spot in the NBA playoffs. Unlike the four teams who finished 7th through 10th, 6th seed can relax. They’re in.

2. 6th Seed Gets Week Off Before Playoffs

The next big advantage of winning the 6th seed is a week off before the playoffs. For a team like the Lakers, getting a week for LeBron and AD to rest and recover and the team to actually practice together would be gold.

3. 6th Seed Plays 3rd Seed Sacramento Kings

Unlike the 7th through 10th seeds, the 6th seed knows they will play the 3rd seed in the first round of the playoffs. Frankly, there is no better first round opponent for this Lakers team than the playoff newbie Sacramento Kings.

4. 6th Seed Avoids Nuggets and Clippers

The other benefit of winning 6th seed is not having to meet #1 Nuggets, #4 Suns, #5 Clippers, or whomever emerges from the Play-In as #8. Our bracket inclues #6 Kings, #2 Grizzies, and whoever wins the #7 seed.

Five Reasons D’Angelo Russell Is Still a Better Fit for Lakers Than Kyrie Irving

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Since declaring they plan to re-sign D’Angelo Russell as their point guard of the future this summer rather than pursuing Kyrie Irving, the Lakers had their first opportunity to see Russell and Irving go head-to-head last night.

While it’s just one game, Kyrie Irving dominated play and his match up with D’Angelo Russell as three costly end-of-game mistakes by Anthony Davis caused the Lakers to lose a 111–110 heartbreaking buzzer-beater.
Irving posted 38 points on hot 14–23 shooting, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists with just 2 turnovers in 39 minutes. Russell posted just 11 points on poor 5–17 shooting, 2 rebounds, and 11 assists with 0 turnovers in 36 minutes.

Last night’s Mavs and Lakers game showed why the Lakers could still change their minds and decide to pursue a sign-and-trade for Kyrie Irving as their point guard of the future instead of re-signing D’Angelo Russell.
Kyrie is without doubt one of the most talented and hard-to-stop superstars in the league and performances like he had last night only make Lakers fans and even the Lakers front office more likely to rethink their position.

But the decision is not as simple as deciding between D’Angelo Russell and Kyrie Irving. It’s actually a franchise-defining decision to pursue the three-superstars model or the two-superstars and deep-and-diverse-roster model. It’s about what is the right strategy considering where the Lakers are right now as a team, what resources they have to make changes, and what kind of roster do they need to build around LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

As great an offensive player as Kyrie Irving is, D’Angelo Russell is still a better overall fit for Lakers than because he adds continuity, is younger, is taller and longer, is less expensive, and is more trustworthy and reliable.

1. Russell Improves Lakers’ Continuity

The Lakers desperately need continuity after three years of one-and-done rosters. If D’Angelo Russell continues to play like he has, the Lakers need to re-sign him long-term rather than trying to trade him for a third superstar.

After turning over almost their entire roster other than superstars the past three summers, Los Angeles reversed that strategy at the trade deadline by focusing on trading for younger players who would be great long-term fits.
Based on what we’ve seen in the 9 games he’s played, Russell already is proving to be the perfect point guard for the Lakers. He’s averaging 17.9 points, 3.6 boards, and 6.4 assists in 29.8 mpg shooting 44.5/37.1/82.8%.

The Lakers think they have at least three more years of LeBron James as a superstar and building continuity by re-signing D’Angelo Russell long-term, as well as their other new additions, should be be a top offseason priority.

2. Russell Makes Lakers Younger

The Lakers would be wise to prefer the now 27-year old D’Angelo Russell over the soon-to-be 31-year old Kyrie Irving as the former gives Los Angeles four more years in the heart of his prime than the latter is able to offer.

Russell just turned 27-years old while Kyrie turns 31 years old this month, making him almost 4 years older. Essentially, Russell is just now entering what will be his prime while Kyrie could be nearing the end of his prime.
It’s fascinating to watch the evolution of the Lakers’ roster average age. In 2019–20, Lakers’ average age was 30.0 years. In 2020–21, it was 30.9 years. In 2021–22, it was 27.1 years. In 2022–23, it’s now down to 25.6 years.

Assuming the D’Angelo Russell we’ve seen is the D’Angelo Russell we get, the Lakers would be foolish to give up a budding young star just entering his prime for a superstar with questions who’s close to past his prime.

3. Russell Adds Size & Length

Some of the Lakers’ early struggles were because of the physical makeup of the roster, which lacked size and length at almost every position, especially point guard where Darvin Ham usually started the 6′ 1″ Dennis Schroder.

Aside from adding needed shooting and defense at the trade deadline, Pelinka also added critical positional size throughout the Lakers roster, including point guard with the 6′ 4″ Russell who has a 6′ 10″ wingspan.
Russell uses that size and length along with changes in pace and direction to control the speed and tempo of the game. He’s not an above-the-rim player like Westbrook or Morant. He’s a game manager with swag.

Where Russell’s size and length have really helped the Lakers has been on defense. Since he’s joined the Lakers, D’Angelo’s 103.5 defensive rating has been second only to LeBron James 98.5 for the last 14 games of the season.

4. Russell Is Less Expensive

One of the major reasons for preferring to re-sign D’Angelo Russell rather than trading for Kyrie Irving is their relative annual salaries. D’Angelo might be willing to sign for $30 million while Irving wants $47 million.

The Lakers learned first hand from the Russell Westbrook experiment how paying maximum salaires to three superstars makes it almost impossible to build a deep and diverse roster to support and complement the superstars.
There’s a good chance the Lakers could re-sign Russell to a 4-year $120 million contract whereas Irving is reportedly seeking a $47 million per year max deal. Bottom line, Irving is a superstar while Russell is simply a star.

The problem with the 3-superstars model is not having enough cap space left to build a deep, diverse roster. Re-signing a star like Russell rather than a superstar like Irving enables Lakers to build deeper, more diverse roster.

5. Russell Is More Trustworthy & Reliable

The single biggest reason the Lakers should re-sign D’Angelo Russell rather than trying to trade him for a third superstar in Kyrie Irving is Dlo’s proven to be a more reliable and trustworthy throughout his professional career.

In today’s NBA, a player’s greatest ability is unfortunately his availability. Over his eight full seasons in the NBA, Russell has averaged 72 games per season compared to Irving’s 55 games per season over his eleven seasons.
More importantly, since signing with the Brooklyn Nets, Kyrie has played in only 103 or 43% of the 236 available games for a variety of reasons ranging from injury to unvaccinated status to various personal reasons.

The Lakers need leadership from their point guard and D’Angelo has now matured and shown he can be trusted to efficiently execute a game plan, and provide solid leadership and personal reliability on and off the court.

Rob Pelinka and the Lakers made smart decisions in rebuilding their roster via trades at the deadline with D’Angelo Russell one of the critical additions that’s transformed the Lakers into legitimate championship contenders.

While last night’s loss to the Mavs was disappointing and discouraging, the Lakers are still just 2 games out of the 6th seed with 11 games to go. Their chances and confidence of making the playoffs drop with every new loss.
Whether the Lakers without LeBron James can run the gauntlet and make the playoffs is not as important as watching the team finally make smart long term decisions and build a roster with great promise for next season.

Kyrie Irving may have won last night’s lead-to-head with D’Angelo Russell but in the long run the Lakers should stay the course and understand Russell is the better fit as the Lakers point guard of the future than Irving.