On January 10, Beijing time, the Lakers challenged the Grizzlies away, and after 4 quarters of fierce fighting, the Lakers finally lost to the opponent 119-127, ending with 4 consecutive wins, and the five small teams suffered the first defeat. Although only losing 8 points with a "miserable loss" is a bit of an exaggeration, but from the whole process, they are indeed a complete fiasco, losing 24 points after 3 quarters, and trailing by 29 points in the last quarter, until garbage time, the Lakers' second team only recovered the points, but to no avail.
In this game, Vogel sent out the past few games of the five small lineup starters, and the Grizzlies, the big center triggered the health and safety agreement can not play, the main scorer Dillon Brooks due to injury suspension, the overall lineup of the Lakers seem to be slightly better, but in the face of the impact of the Grizzlies, the Lakers were blown up by the opponent at the beginning of the second quarter, even if James performed well, but under the Grizzlies' excellent overall defense, other helpers contributed little and failed to share the pressure for James.
James's performance in this game is still super-giant level, playing 33 minutes, 14 of 19 shots, 4 of 3 three-pointers, 4 of 4 free throws, 35 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists, the offensive end is still unstoppable, and also to organize the team to attack, this is James's good way of playing, but unfortunately he once again felt helpless helpless, even if he played this performance, but still failed to wake up other teammates.
In the Lakers' starting lineup, in addition to James, the other 4 people all scored in single digits, and Munch, who has performed well in the past few games, was completely defended in this game, 3 of 13, only 7 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists, but 3 blocks reflect the potential of the defensive end. Bradley scored seven points on 2-of-10. And Wei Shao, as the second largest of the team, pulled his crotch again in this game, he played 26 minutes, 2 of 12 shots, 1 of 1 three-pointers, 2 of 2 free throws, handed over a bad performance of 6 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists, in front of Morant, who was very much like his young self, Wei Shao was completely slapped on the beach by the back wave, and became a burden to the Lakers.
In fact, the Grizzlies lineup in this game is also very close to the five small lineups, Adams is absent, they let Jalen Jackson Jr. play the No. 5 position, the other 4 are rookie Williams, veteran Kyle Anderson, and Morant and Bain's double backcourt, although Jalen Jackson Jr. is a serious interior player compared to James, but the two of them, James is not at all behind, but the Grizzlies have seized the Lakers' offensive weaknesses and defensive disadvantages very well, constantly impacting the Lakers' penalty area, and directly crushing the opponent through rapid counterattacks.
The Grizzlies scored 62 points on the inside of this game, and the Lakers only improved their inside scores to 56 points by virtue of the garbage time in the final quarter, and their interior scores were double digits behind the Grizzlies in the first three quarters. In terms of fast-attack scores, the Grizzlies scored 25 points, and the Lakers' fast-attack scored only 10 points, a far cry, and the counterattack success rate of the small lineup was very critical, but the Grizzlies did it, while the Lakers did not.
In the past few games, the Lakers' five small lineups are full of power, and in fact, the opponents they encounter are not strong, the 5 opponents they win are rockets, trail blazers, timberwolves, kings and eagles, and when they meet strong opponents such as the Grizzlies, they are taught a lesson by the opponents, in the past 7 games, the Lakers have won 5 wins and 2 losses, of which 2 losses are just lost to the Grizzlies. The team did change a lot on the offensive end after playing in the small lineup, but they are not really a strong team, and the Grizzlies just became a touchstone for them to test their strength, at least this game proved that the Lakers are still a long way from entering the championship discussion.