Grizzlies Pound Struggling Lakers

The Lakers simply couldn’t get into a rhythm on Friday night, overpowered by the Memphis Grizzlies 88-73 at the Summer Pro League.

Devin Green would lead the Lakers with 18 points and 7 rebounds, but received little help from the others on the roster, as no other player would score over 10 points.

The game was broken up by a plethora of foul calls (71 total, including a pair of flagrants) , something that possibly hindered the players from getting into a groove offensively.

“We turned the ball over an awful lot,” coach Kurt Rambis said, “and there was a discrepancy in the amount of times they went to the free throw line, but I think they were the more aggressive team. They came after us today. I think our guys were a little bit tired and it took them too long to try and respond. They tried to get back into the ball game in the second half, but for the most part I think our guys ran out of gas.”

“And Memphis does a great job of pressuring our guys. So it puts pressure on our guys to not only deal with the pressure, but also be able to execute the offense with that pressure.”

As a team, the Lakers recorded 26 turnovers, the most they have committed in this summer’s competition.

The Grizzlies received 50 free throw attempts for the entire game; the Lakers received 35.

Andrew Bynum
Bynum again showed the inconsistencies expected from such a young player, recording just 7 points, 4 rebounds and 2 blocked shots.

Andrew told me after the game that it was tough to get into a rhythm with all the foul calls and he was a bit tired, but it was no excuse.

The biggest deficiency in this game against the Grizzlies was that Andrew had trouble establishing position. Although the fact that the Laker backcourt had trouble giving him a decent entry pass, Bynum didn’t plant his feet or use his strength to set himself up in favorable spots.

He picked up 7 fouls out there, some being questionable calls. It seemed to throw him off and he simply looked lost out there at times, particularly when rebounding.

He’d often fail to grab the ball with authority and would allow a smaller teammate (such as Devin Green) to secure the ball instead.

Perhaps Rambis’ assessment of the Lakers running “out of gas” was true. I asked him to evaluate Bynum’s performance.

“He was okay,” Rambis said. “I think that’s one of the things that young ballplayers have to learn — you’ve got to bring it every night. You play a game on the average of every other day in the NBA and some of them are on back-to-back nights. No one cares what you did on Monday, they only care about how you play on Tuesday. He’s struggled in back to back games.”

Jordan Farmar
It looks like the last couple of games for Jordan have proven to be a struggle.

Whether it was the groin pains or growing pains, Farmar didn’t execute properly out there on the offensive end.

Jordan finished with 10 points and 2 assists on just 4 of 12 shooting. He turned the ball over seven times, seemingly disappointed at himself for some of the decisions he made out there when handling it.

“We didn’t play well at all,” Farmar said. “They beat us to every loose ball, they beat us on the boards, they got to the free throw line. They outplayed us in pretty much every aspect.”

I asked Jordan if it was tough to get into a rhythm out there with all the foul calls.

“It was very tough,” Farmar said. “You’ve got to play through that stuff though. That’s part of the game [and] there’s going to be nights like that. So you’ve got to get used to playing through that and still being successful.”

Six games into the SPL, I also asked Farmar what he thinks he needs to improve on the most.

“Just getting stronger and becoming more of a consistent shooter. I think those are two things I can really work on.”

Jordan will have a couple days of rest before his next game, let’s see if it helps his performance.

Devin Green
Even in a loss, it’s a big positive to see this type of game from Green.

18 point and 7 boards from Devin were both team-highs against the Grizzlies. He seems to have developed a knack for playing within the offense and picking his spots. I asked him if this ability has impressed the coaching staff.

“Yeah definitely,” said Green. “They’ve been working with us all year, so that’s the biggest thing that they want from us, the veterans. Is to come out and kind of use the offense to get our offense.”

The remainder of the team either didn’t provide a significant contribution or did not receive enough playing time for proper evaluation.

Keep tuned in for more interviews and analysis with BDG’s SPL Exclusive reports and ClubLakers.com’s complete coverage of the Summer Pro League over the next couple of weeks.

Comments on this report? Agree/disagree with these evaluations? Want to talk about the game? Sound off in our CL.com SPL discussion.

Huge thanks go out to hZm for providing photos of tonight’s game. For more pictures, click here.

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