Depleted Lakers fall to Grizzlies to finish 1-4 trip

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Anthony Davis’ value for the Lakers was clear well before Wednesday night’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies.

But just in case there were any doubts, the Lakers’ 131-114 loss, which dropped them to 4-4 overall and 1-4 on their road trip, was a reminder.

Playing without their All-Star big man, who was sidelined with a bruised left heel, in addition to starting forward Rui Hachimura, was always going to be an uphill battle for the Lakers. Especially since they’re already without Jarred Vanderbilt and Christian Wood, stripping the Lakers of most of their frontcourt size.

And the Grizzlies (5-4) made the Lakers pay for playing undersized, dominating the interior all night at FedEx Forum. Memphis scored 60 points in the paint, had 15 second-chance points off of 12 offensive rebounds and scored 27 fastbreak points.

“At the end of the day, especially when you lose bodies, you got to compete,” LeBron James said. “You got to compete even harder. You got to be out there giving it everything that you got and on both ends. There were times that we did that but the majority of the time, I don’t think we sustained energy and effort.”

The Lakers competed with the Grizzlies behind the strong offensive play of James, who scored a season-high 39 points on 15-of-24 shooting to go with seven rebounds and six assists.

“Biggest thing that stood out: he played hard,” Coach JJ Redick said. “Almost 40 years old and played the hardest on our team. It says a lot about him.”

No other Laker consistently found an offensive rhythm.

The Lakers shot 15 for 48 from 3-point range, with James going 6 for 11, and 44.1% (41 for 93) from the field.

Austin Reaves (19 points, five assists), D’Angelo Russell (12 points, three assists) and rookie Dalton Knecht (three points) made just five of their combined 25 3-point attempts.

Those misses, especially early, turned into fast-break opportunities for the Grizzlies – an area of weakness for the Lakers and a strength for Memphis.

“We have to be better with basically every aspect of the game,” Reaves said of Redick’s postgame message. “But the main thing just competing and following the gameplan. They lay out good stuff for us to go execute, and we just haven’t done that on this trip. And we got to go home, look [ourselves] in the mirror and do better.”

Knecht left the game in the fourth quarter, holding his jaw/mouth as he went to the bench and the locker room. He didn’t require postgame X-rays.

Russell didn’t play in the final 18½ minutes and played a season-low 22 minutes.

“Just level of compete, attention to detail, some of the things we’ve talked with him about for a couple of weeks,” Redick responded when asked about Russell’s diminished playing time. “And at times he’s been really good with that stuff. And other times, it’s just reverting back to certain habits.

“But it wasn’t like a punishment. It just felt for us to have a chance to win this game, that was the route we wanted to take. Gabe [Vincent] in the first half, especially defensively, was fantastic. And I just wanted to see what that looked like.”

The Grizzlies were led by star guard Ja Morant (20 points, five assists), who left the game late in the third after coming up limping and calling for a timeout after an errant alley-oop attempt. The Grizzlies said his return to the game was doubtful because of a right hamstring issue.

Jaren Jackson Jr. and Jaylen Wells also had 20 points apiece for Memphis.

Cam Reddish, in the Lakers’ rotation for the second consecutive game after an impressive performance in Monday’s loss to the Detroit Pistons, finished with a season-high 15 points to go with six rebounds in 26 minutes.

Former Lakers two-way contract players Jay Huff (11 points) and Scotty Pippen Jr. (14 points, six rebounds, four assists) were impactful for Memphis off the bench.

The Lakers host the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday night at Crypto.com Arena.

“Something that we’ve discussed as a group: you have a choice every night for how you play and it has nothing to do with making shots,” Redick said was his main takeaway from the trip. “There’s got to be a group of people, seven, eight guys, that make that choice. And we’re a really good basketball team. [When] we have a handful, we have two or three, we’re not gonna be a good basketball team that night. That’s just the reality.”