The Los Angeles Lakers were not a typical No. 7 seed during the 2022-23 NBA Playoffs. They had completely rebuilt their team at the trade deadline and around a new core consisting of LeBron James, Anthony Davis and elite role players like Austin Reaves, they defeated the No. 2 seed Memphis Grizzlies in the first round.
The Grizzlies, a strong No. 2 seed, were known for their flashy style of play last season that was mixed with a healthy dose of trash talk. They became a heel throughout the league as their core of young players started to see success. This was spurred on by comments made by Dillon Brooks both before and during the series.
But when the Lakers ultimately defeated the Grizzlies in six games, the trash talking came to an end and Memphis began to re-evaluate the type of team they wanted to build. They made some drastic changes in the offseason to address what went wrong in the postseason.
Reaves, the Lakers guard who had some of his best performances of the season during that first round series, spoke about defeating the Grizzlies and how it felt knowing the type of team they were, via the Full Send Podcast:
“All of Memphis, honestly, their whole team talks shit. It felt good beating them in the playoffs… I think at the end of the day everybody knows we’re still grown men out there, [you] can’t really go call somebody something wild.”
Reaves later clarified that he could not remember anything specific said by the Grizzlies during the series and that it was nothing particularly crazy, but that the point still stood about them being a trash-talking team.
Memphis was unable to back up their trash talk during this postseason. They since allowed Brooks to walk to the Houston Rockets and traded backup point guard Tyus Jones for former Boston Celtics Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart.
The hope is that these changes will turn the trash talk into results. And if it does, Reaves and the rest of the league may begin to show a newfound respect for Memphis that they haven’t publicly until now.
Reaves happy to see Davis sign extension
Reaves has also recently spoken about the contract extension signed by Davis this offseason that keeps him in L.A. for the next five seasons. He said he’s happy for Davis to land that extension and said that the Lakers made a great choice by securing one of the best big men in the game for years to come.
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