After an abysmal 2-10 start to the season, the Los Angeles Lakers fought all the way back to qualify for the NBA Playoffs in the Western Conference.
The Lakers had to go through the Play-In Tournament to do so, but they beat the Minnesota Timberwolves to earn the No. 7 seed and a first-round matchup with the No. 2 seed Memphis Grizzlies.
Things started off well for the Lakers as they went into FedEx Forum and got outstanding performances from both Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura to win Game 1 against the Grizzlies, taking homecourt advantage in the process.
The Lakers had a golden opportunity to go home up 2-0 with Ja Morant missing Game 2 due to a hand injury he suffered at the end of Game 1. Unfortunately though, the other Grizzlies players stepped up and the Lakers had a sloppy performance, so the series will shift to Crypto.com Arena tied at one game apiece.
This will mark the first home playoff game for the Lakers with full capacity since 2013. The Lakers, of course, won the championship in 2020 and made the playoffs again in 2021 although the arena was not allowed to be full due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Crypto.com Arena should be as loud as it has ever been, and it will be up to LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Co. to make sure they protect homecourt and head back to Memphis with a 3-1 series lead. That obviously won’t be easy, but with Morant’s status still uncertain, this is an opportunity the Lakers can’t squander if they want to make a serious playoff run.
When the series first started though, the NBA only announced the start times and TV info for the first four games of the series. Now that all of the other postseason series’ are playing out though, the league announced some more of the schedule for the first round.
The dates were already known so there aren’t really any surprises, but here is the full schedule and TV info for the first five games of the Lakers’ first-round series against the Grizzlies:
Lakers playoffs schedule vs. Grizzlies
Game 1: Sunday, April 16, 12 p.m. PT, ABC
Game 2: Wednesday, April 19, 4:30 p.m., TNT
Game 3: Saturday, April 22, 7 p.m., ESPN
Game 4: Monday, April 24, 7 p.m., TNT
Game 5*: Wednesday, April 26, 4:30 p.m., TNT
Game 6* Friday, April 28, TBD
Game 7*: Sunday, April 30, TBD
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