Lakers vs. Grizzlies Final Score: Lakers end road trip with loss

The Lakers defense was non-existent as they couldn’t stop the Memphis Grizzlies from scoring and lost 131-114 on Wednesday night.

With Anthony Davis and Rui Hachimura ruled out, LeBron James had to shoulder the offensive load. He finished the game with 39 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Tonight was also LeBron’s 1,500. game in the regular season.

Austin Reaves scored 19 points and had five assists along with three rebounds and three steals. D’Angelo Russell chipped in with 12 points to go with his three assists and two steals. Cam Reddish had 15 points, six rebounds, two assists and two steals.

Grizzlies rookie Zach Edey started things off with a layup. Memphis attacked early and jumped out to a four-point lead while LA struggled to score. D’Lo scored four straight points. The Grizzlies jumped ahead by six after D’Lo started warming up for LA. LeBron knocked down a three to cut the deficit to three.

Memphis turned the ball over a lot and had six already, but the Lakers couldn’t take advantage of that to gain momentum. Dalton hit a three to make it a three-point game.

AD’s presence in the paint was missed as the Grizzlies were able to score without his defense stopping them. At the end of the first, LA was down by eight.

The turnover problems continued for the Grizzlies, who did not play clean ball. LA’s offense was a little smoother and they cut the deficit to three on a 3-pointer by LeBron. As Memphis tried to extend their lead, the Lakers continued to stay afloat.

Dalton made a big effort to rebound the ball twice for an eventual dunk by Jaxson Hayes. Jaxson then had another dunk to make it a four-point game. Reddish once again did all the dirty work with his strong defense. He stole the ball and took it to the other end for a layup.

With two minutes left before halftime, LeBron began to take over offensively. He was up to 13 points in the quarter. The energy rose sharply with both teams’ turnovers. Yes Morant and LeBron went back and forth which got the crowd hyped up.

The two superstars traded baskets and Ja bumped LeBron. On another play, Ja made too small a gesture to Gabe Vincent, and Lebron returned a favor.

At halftime, Memphis was ahead by six.

The second half began with LeBron passing it to Jaxson for another dunk. Memphis responded by scoring nine straight points on three 3-pointers to go ahead by 11. LeBron knocked down two 3-pointers to make it a five-point game.

Los Angeles tried to stay close enough to mount a charge, but after a pair of shots and a three from former Laker Jay Huff, the Grizzlies’ lead grew to 11.

Huff felt himself, taking full advantage of his former team, even converting on a strong put-back dunk.

Everything that could go wrong did go wrong for the Lakers, who were down 14 at the end of the third.

The final frame started with an and-1 by Jaren Jackson Jr. and a Luke Kennard three. Not a single thing went LA’s way as Memphis’ lead continued to grow.

LeBron tried to get the team going on his own, cutting the deficit to 16, but the Grizzlies couldn’t be stopped offensively.

With four minutes remaining and the game out of reach, the rest of the period was garbage time.

Key takeaways:

When will we see Max Christie and Gabe have a productive offensive game? Both players seem to be drowning in low confidence.

Rødlig put in the work for the bench, but the other points mostly came in garbage time. The bench must wake up during the match.

The Lakers understandably struggled with points in the paint without AD. They had just 44 to Memphis’ 60.

The Lakers will try to get back into the win column on Friday at home against Philadelphia 76ers at 19:00 PT.

You can follow Karin on Twitter at @KarinAbcarians.