On December 30, Beijing time, the NBA regular season Grizzlies sat at home to meet the Lakers! The Grizzlies have recently picked up in form with Morant's return, winning two straight games. The Lakers, because of the impact of multiple factors of the epidemic and injuries, have lost 5 and 1 win in the past 6 games, and this time the away game is back-to-back against the Grizzlies, facing a physical test. In the end, after four hard fights, the Lakers lost to the Grizzlies 99-104.
At the beginning of the game, the Lakers counterattacked, James continued the hot feel of recent times, shooting 4 of 4 in the first quarter, 3 of 3 for three points, 11 points in the single quarter, and pulled the point difference to 2 digits early! Contrary to James's fiery feel, the Grizzlies frequently hit iron on the outside, relying on Jones's whistle throw, and the Grizzlies forced the point difference to 7 points to end the first quarter.
In the second quarter of the game lineup connection section, the Lakers put up a small lineup of Anthony playing the fifth position, in order to cooperate with the impact of Wei Shao. Wei Shao's tandem helped the Lakers take the initiative on the scene, and the point difference hovered around 10 points. The Grizzlies still didn't find their outside touch in the quarter, with only Morante hitting two three-pointers in the first half, and the others combining to make 0-of-12 shooting. The outside didn't feel good, and could only rush to the inside, relying on a more aggressive style of play, the Grizzlies chased the gap to 6 points at halftime.
In the second half of the game, James suddenly made a force, shooting all five of the first five, scoring 14 consecutive points to stop the Grizzlies. However, after the Lakers fell into a long power outage, the Grizzlies seized the opportunity to play a 17-3 offensive climax across the section, wiping out the difference in one fell swoop. After that, James and Westbrook stood up and scored 7 consecutive points to help the team stabilize the situation a little!
In the last quarter of 7:30, Morant appeared, entered the individual performance time, came up to 3 yuan in a row, shot no false shots outside the three-point line, led the team to a 10-0 attack wave, established a 7-point lead, and the balance of victory began to tilt towards the Grizzlies.
The Lakers relied on James's three-pointer to maintain suspense, but at the critical moment, Wei Shao missed the empty basket. In the last 1 minute and 33 seconds, James made a three-point foul, and if all three free throws were hit, the Lakers could equalize. Grizzlies coach Jenkins decisively slapped the light challenge, the challenge was successful, the Grizzlies regained the ball through the jump ball, Morant forced the inside line, self-shooting, scored 2 points, and opened the point difference to 5 points.
In the final moments, the Lakers still have a chance to equalize. In the final attack, the Lakers trailed by 3 points, James encountered the bag clip after passing the ball to Munch, Munch did not choose to shoot himself, at this time Wei Shao was unattended in the bottom corner, I don't know whether Munch did not see Wei Shao, or did not trust his three points, chose to pass back to James who was watched at the top of the arc! James dribbled and stumbled, made mistakes when he was young, and the suspense of the game came to an abrupt end.
James' performance today has been impeccable, he was on his 37-year-old birthday, 13-of-25 shooting, 8-of-13 three-pointers, 37 points, 13 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks, and the Lakers once again wasted his top performance. Westbrook contributed 16 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists on 7-of-16 shooting, which was his eighth triple-double of the season, but the Lakers won 3-5 in those 8 games! After the game, Wei Shao once again carried the pot, and "Trading Wei Shao" once again rushed to the Twitter hot search!
In stark contrast to the lonely Lakers, the Grizzlies have won three straight games to further cement their 4th place in the West. Home star Morant shot 13-of-27, 6-of-7 from three-point range, and scored 41 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks, shattering doubts. Facing the Lakers three times this season, Morant averaged 40.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 6 assists per game!
Speaking about fighting off the Lakers after the game, Morant said: "Knowing that those in purple-gold clothes are going to go home with grief makes tonight's victory even better." "It's a murderous curse!"