From a team standpoint, the Los Angeles Lakers were the far superior side in Game 3 of their first-round series, dominating the first quarter and cruising to a 10-point win. But despite excellent nights from both Anthony Davis and LeBron James, it was Grizzlies point guard Ja Morant who almost singlehandedly gave the Grizzlies just a bit of hope late.
Returning from a sprained right hand that kept him out of Game 2, Morant scored 24 of his 45 points in the fourth quarter including a run of 22 straight points for Memphis at one point. Morant also knocked down six 3-pointers on the night and LeBron had nothing but praise for the Grizzlies young star after the impressive night.
“That boy is good. I mean, he’s good,” LeBron said after the game. “He’s so good at attacking the rim that you wanna try to keep bodies in front of him, make him try to live on the perimeter. Well tonight he made six 3s so once a guy gets going from the outside then he can do whatever he wants offensively. So our mindset was if they’re gonna score we gotta continue to score, we gotta continue to put pressure on their defense.
“But when great players get it going there’s nothing that you can do. You can run off 20, you can run off 30, you can run off, I don’t know 29 out of 30. You can’t stop it.”
LeBron is right in that if Morant is hitting from deep he is impossible to stop. As the Lakers star said, ideally you keep bodies in front of him and force him to shoot from the outside. That is even more the case with Morant dealing with an injury to his shooting hand, but that somehow made him more of a threat from outside.
The Lakers have to believe that Morant can’t continue to shoot at that level and considering Morant shot just 30.7% from deep this year, the numbers would be on their side. But the playoffs bring out the best in the league’s top players and Morant is showing he belongs amongst the NBA’s elite as he continues to deliver on the biggest stage.
Dillon Brooks won’t be suspended for Game 4 after low blow on LeBron James
The other big story coming out of Game 3 was Grizzlies wing Dillon Brooks being ejected for hitting James in the groin in the third quarter. After calling LeBron old after Game 2, Brooks was having an awful night while James was in complete control of the game.
It was unclear whether the shot was intentional, and this wasn’t the first time Brooks has hit a player low this season. But the NBA has ruled that no further action will be taken on Brooks and the Grizzlies wing will be available for Game 4.
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