Ja Morant and the well-rested Memphis Grizzlies host LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 1 of their Western Conference first-round playoff collection on Sunday afternoon.
The second-seeded Grizzlies has had every week off to organize for the postseason, whereas the seventh-seeded Lakers outlasted the Minnesota Timberwolves in extra time in Tuesday’s play-in recreation.
James (30 factors, 10 rebounds) and Anthony Davis (24 factors, 15 boards) recorded double-doubles within the Lakers’ 108-102 win towards the Wolves.
Davis added three blocked pictures because the Los Angeles defence restricted Minnesota to 12 factors within the fourth quarter and 4 factors in extra time.
Davis was key to Los Angeles’ surge over the ultimate month of the common season, scoring 30-plus factors eight occasions since March 3. The Lakers went 13-6 over that stretch, placing it in place to host the play-in matchup.
Its reward is a gathering with a Memphis staff that gained 51 regular-season video games and completed two video games out of first within the West. However, the Lakers claimed the season collection, 2-1, capped with a 112-103 victory on March 7.
Davis went for 30 factors and 22 rebounds in that assembly, a recreation by which James and Morant have been each unavailable.
Morant is the catalyst of the Memphis offence, averaging team-highs of 26.2 factors and eight.1 assists per recreation. But when requested about dealing with Morant, D’Angelo Russell — a late-season acquisition for the Lakers — stated he “would rather talk about (Los Angeles).”
“I’m sure everybody’s talking about them,” Russell stated at Friday’s media availability. “I really don’t wanna give y’all no headlines.”
Russell did concede that the important thing to slowing Memphis was “containing Ja Morant.”
Memphis will look to include Los Angeles on the opposite finish with out one among its stoppers. Steven Adams, who averaged a team-high 11.5 rebounds per recreation in the course of the common season, may miss the playoffs with a knee harm that has saved him out since January.
That leaves Jaren Jackson Jr., one among three finalists named Friday for the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year award, shouldering extra duties towards Los Angeles’ Davis.
Jackson averaged a league-high 3.0 blocks per recreation and performed a major position in Memphis ending the common season with the NBA’s lowest opponent field-goal share (.453).
In Adams’ absence, Xavier Tillman Sr. can be known as on to take up among the defensive duties. Tillman averaged 9.7 factors and 6.7 rebounds in his 29 begins this season.
“Just defensively, you’ve got to be locked in at all times,” Tillman stated of guarding Davis in the course of the Grizzlies’ media availability on Friday. “He’s one of those guys who takes advantage if you’re sleeping on the offensive glass, or getting post-ups or easy lobs.”
Memphis held the No. 2 seed final yr, too, however bowed out within the Western Conference semifinals with a 4-2 collection loss to eventual champion Golden State.
The Lakers missed the playoffs final season and was knocked out within the first spherical by Phoenix in the course of the 2020-21 postseason.
