April 2, 2017

The Lakers took advantage of a short-handed Grizzlies team on Sunday at Staples Center, defeating Memphis 108-103.

D’Angelo Russell scored 28 points, and Larry Nance Jr, Julius Randle, and Thomas Robinson all put up double-doubles, as the Lakers snapped a four-game losing streak.

“Our guys are tired of losing,” Lakers coach Luke Walton said. “They’ve been playing hard. We’ve obviously been short-handed recently. We needed them on the glass tonight. Memphis is a slow-it-down, grind-it-out type of team. If you lose the rebound battle you make it really tough on yourself. The fact that all three of those guys were that active on the glass and coming in, attacking from the weak side on the defense and all that stuff, really helped us out.”

The Grizzlies played without Marc Gasol and Vince Carter.  The Lakers took advantage but lost some ground in the lottery standings.  Phoenix lost against Houston, so LA now has the 3rd worst record in the NBA.  If the Lakers 1st round pick this year lands outside of the top 3, then that pick goes to Philadelphia, as part of the Steve Nash trade.

The Lakers were clinging to a 1 point lead at halftime, and trailed by 1 heading into the 4th quarter, despite allowing the Grizzlies to shoot 60% in the 3rd quarter.

The game was tied at 90-90 with 5:44 left, and then again at 97-97, but the Lakers came through in the 4th quarter.  Randle iced the game with two free throws in the final five seconds.

The Lakers will now travel to San Antonio to take on the Spurs on Wednesday.