(Basketball news) The Los Angeles Lakers couldn’t replicate their game 1 performance as they lost to the Ja Morant-less Memphis Grizzlies 103-93. For the Grizzlies, Xavier Tillman scored a career-high 22 points and had 13 rebounds as Jaren Jackson Jr., who got crowned as the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year, scored 18 points while Desmond Bane had 17 points, while Jones had 10 points and eight assists after having an hour’s notice he would start for Morant.
For the Lakers, Lebron James led the scoring with 28 points and 12 rebounds as this was his 103rd career playoff game with 20 points and 10 rebounds. He tied Tim Duncan for fourth-most all-time. Only Shaquille O’Neal, Karl Malone and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar stand ahead of him. Reserve Rui Hachimura had another strong performance with 20 points while Anthony Davis struggled mightily after posting a double-double in the opener, going 4 of 14 and finishing with 13 points and eight rebounds.
“Obviously, this is a big win for us,” Memphis coach Taylor Jenkins said. “You know, great performance from him (Tillman), other guys as well.”
“Hopefully over the next couple of days, there’s more significant improvement,” Jenkins said.
“He was big time for us tonight and a big reason why we got the win,” guard Tyus Jones said.
“They’re just as dangerous a team when Tyus is starting,” James said. “They don’t miss a beat, and we knew that. No matter if Ja’s in the game. If Ja’s starting, dangerous. If Tyus is starting, dangerous. It didn’t change our approach.”
The Milwaukee Bucks produced one of their best performances without their star man Giannis as they beat them 138-122. For the Bucks, Brook Lopez scored 25 points, Jrue Holiday added 24 as they shot 25 of 49 from 3-point range to match an NBA record for 3-pointers in a game while Pat Connaughton, who hadn’t even played in Game 1, scored a playoff career-high 22 points and shot 6 of 10 from beyond the arc. For the Heat, Jimmy Butler led the scoring with 25 points Duncan Robinson replaced Herro in the starting lineup and had 14 points.
“Everyone’s ready,” Lopez said. “Everyone has the right mentality coming into the game – the mentality it takes to be a Milwaukee Buck. There’s no one above anyone else. We’re just out there trying to win.”
“We’ll continue to monitor him and expect for him to improve and still continue to be optimistic that soon he’ll be ready to play,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said before the game.
“There was a stretch there where it seemed like everything was going in,” said Grayson Allen, who was 4 of 8 from beyond the arc and scored 16 points.
Also read: NBA: Suns level the series against the Clippers while Celtics win over the Hawks
