Lakers: Dennis Schröder Salvages Late-Game 122-121 LA Win Over Grizzlies
Your injury-plagued Los Angeles Lakers finally closed out a narrow late-game victory!
LA has been on the wrong side of near-misses in three of its last four games, all lost by five points or less against playoff-caliber clubs. Today, in one of the best wins of the year (it's this or that well-rounded December 16th Denver blowout), LA defeated one of the best teams in its conference, the now 31-14 Memphis Grizzlies, thanks to some clutch play from two of its veteran guards, Russell Westbrook and Dennis Schröder.
Westbrook helped the Lakers stay in the game with a well-rounded offensive outpouring, scoring from all over the floor.
He went 2-of-4 from deep:
And did plenty of damage on drives, too:
LA surprisingly more or less kept pace with a longer, younger, deeper Memphis team throughout the game's first half. LeBron James even tried on defense a bit!
The Grizzlies led at the break, but only by a hair, 53-49. It was a chippy game, as evinced by the heated halftime conversation that broke out between NFL Hall of Fame tight end-turned-talking head Shannon Sharpe, a Lakers fan, and Memphis forward Dillon Brooks, before eventually Sharpe faced off against Steven Adams, Ja Morant, and Ja Morant's dad Tee, a Lakers non-fan.
Memphis appeared intent on opening things up in the third quarter, at one point galloping to a 13-point lead with 1:08 remaining. But LA was not to be denied. And it would rally to close out the frame on a 6-1 run, thanks to the efforts of Russell Westbrook and Juan Toscano-Anderson.
The Grizzlies maintained a slight lead over the Lakers for much of the fourth quarter, and for a second there, it almost felt like Memphis was firmly in control, thanks to a two-possession lead, 116-110, with 1:45 remaining. Given LA's predilection for blowing late-game possessions of late, the contest looked to be firmly in hand for the opposition.
But it wasn't.
First, Russell Westbrook drove inside and drew a foul on Dillon Brooks -- but this wasn't just any foul, it was the sixth for Brooks, meaning one of the Grizzlies' best defenders (who had been doing an admirable job on LeBron James all night) had to hit the bench for good. Westbrook wound up splitting his two free throw takes.
Next, following a Desmond Bane miss, Schröder drew a foul on reserve big Brandon Clarke, and iced both his looks at the charity stripe. Kendrick Nunn, in for shooting late, fouled reserve guard Tyus Jones, running point while Morant was moved off-ball. Jones made both his attempts to get the score to 118-113 Grizzlies.
LeBron James tipped in a layup to put LA within a possession with 57.1 seconds remaining, and all of a sudden it was anyone's game. James then rebounded a botched Morant floater attempt and, as is his late-game custom, took an ill-advised three-point attempt. When it clanged out, though, Westbrook was there to grab it and nail the subsequent putback layup, narrowing the gap to 118-117.
After Westbrook fouled Tyus Jones late, Darvin Ham used the dead ball time to bring in center Thomas Bryant for Troy Brown Jr. and power forward/center Wenyen Gabriel in for Schröder ahead of LA's next offensive possession, perhaps for offensive rebounding help... But Gabriel didn't actually play a second, as Ham called a timeout and swapped him out for Schroder again, with Memphis now up three, 120-117, following Jones's two made free throws. This would prove to be the right call.
Ziaire Williams fouled Schröder almost immediately, and Schröder iced both his charity stripe takes to improve the score to 120-119. But Schröder earned game MVP honors with this critical ensuing play, when he stole the ball from Desmond Bane and converted it into an and-one running layup, drawing a foul on Bane to boot!
With his three-point play, the point guard helped the Lakers take a two-point lead, 122-120. In a mad scramble after Ja Morant blew another close floater afterwards, Brandon Clarke snagged the rebound, leading Wenyen Gabriel (who had been substituted back in, this time for Juan Toscano-Anderson) to foul Clarke, a decent free throw shooter for a big man (72.6%). Clarke split his charity stripe looks and Russell Westbrook played some crucial lockdown defense on Morant as time expired, with LA winning by a point.
Schröder would finish the night with 19 points while shooting a lackluster 4-of-11 from the field, but an imperative 10-of-11 from the free throw line. He also chipped in eight rebounds, eight assists, three steals, and a block, in a surprisingly engaged two-way performance.
Westbrook led all Lakers with 29 points while nailing an efficient 10-of-18 of his shots from the floor and 7-of-11 of his tries at the free throw line. He also logged six assists, five rebounds and a block.
James scored 23 points on 8-of-21 shooting from the floor (just 1-of-5 from deep), pulled down nine rebounds, passed for six assists, swiped two steals and blocked two shots.
Troy Brown Jr. (11 points on 3-of-12 shooting), Kendrick Nunn (11 points on 4-of-10 shooting) and Patrick Beverley (a shocking 10 points) were LA's other double digit scorers.
The Lakers made just 40.9% of their shots from the floor (38-of-93), but critically took far more triples than their opponents. Los Angeles finished 13-of-41 from three-point land, meaning they scored 12 more points from beyond the arc than the Grizz, who went just 9-of-29. LA also shot much better from the charity stripe (33-of-41 vs. 26-of-40).
With the victory, LA is now 21-25 in the West, still good for just the 13th seed. On the plus side, the team is two games behind the sixth-seeded Golden State Warriors (23-23), with plenty of time to make up that ground, and Anthony Davis set to return as soon as next weekend.
