(Basketball news) The Los Angeles Lakers made two consecutive wins as they jumped into 9th place and subsequently in the play-in spots as they defeated the Memphis Grizzlies 112-103. For the Lakers, Anthony Davis had 30 points and 22 rebounds, Dennis Schröder added 17 points and nine assists as Rui Hachimura and Austin Reaves scored 17 points apiece while Troy Brown Jr scored 13 points, making a clutch 3-pointer for their sixth win in eight games.

The Lakers retired Pau Gasol’s No. 16 jersey at halftime, honoring the Spanish 7-footer who reached three NBA Finals and won two titles after joining Los Angeles in a trade with Memphis in 2008. For the Grizzlies, Jaren Jackson scored 26 points and Tyus Jones had 16 points as they were without Ja Morant who is under investigation for carrying a gun in a club.

“It’s good, but we’re not satisfied,” Davis said about the Lakers’ highest spot in the standings since their 2-10 start to the season. “We don’t want to stop there. We want to get greedy.”

“Guys out there are confident, and when you play basketball like that, it leads to victories,” Davis said.

“The margin for error is really small right now,” coach Taylor Jenkins said. “It’s our third rough patch of the year. We always find a way to respond.”

“We’re in touch with him every single day,” Jenkins said. “He’s still a huge part of what we do. As I said the other day, we love him. We want what’s best for him. We support him. … It’s a healing process, so if everyone expects something to change overnight, we’ve got to (do) due diligence and be respectful in that. We’re talking about Ja being in a better place personally and also professionally, so to put a timetable on it is disrespectful, in my opinion.”

The Milwaukee Bucks won their 9th straight game as they defeated the Orlando Magic 134-123. For the Bucks, Khris Middleton and Jevon Carter each added 24 points as Bobby Portis Jr. had 16 points and 11 rebounds and Jae Crowder added 15 points, who shot 59% for the 3 point mark. They were playing without All-Stars Giannis Antetokounmpo (non-COVID-19 illness) and Jrue Holiday (sore neck). For the Magic, Cole Anthony led the scoring with 23 points as Franz Wagner added 21 points and Paolo Banchero had 20 points and five rebounds. With this result the Bucks improved their NBA record to 47-18 which is subsequently the best record in the league.

“I really think it’s just the caliber of players we have,” Lopez said. “We’ve got guys who are high basketball IQ and are unselfish, team first. It’s great to have a couple of those guys, but to have a bench full of them, we’re really lucky.”

“It felt like it was the right time for (Middleton) to get up to the 30-minute plateau, with Jrue and Giannis not playing,” Budenholzer said. “Just doing a little bit of everything, he set a good tone for us early. We were fortunate to have him come off the bench for us for a long time, and now he’s going to continue to do those things where he’s always been, in our starting lineup.” 

“They are playing great basketball right now – confident, playing like a well-oiled machine,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. “They share, they move it, they trust their shot. You have to give them a ton of credit.”

“That’s kind of a sliver lining to a couple guys not playing,” Budenholzer said. “He got to play a lot of minutes. He got a good rhythm and he made shots.”

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