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Lakers Notes: LeBron, Davis, Reaves, Irving

April 29th, 2023 at 5:18pm CST by Arthur Hill

LeBron James said the Lakers brought a “Game 7 mentality” to the court Friday night as they eliminated the Grizzlies with a 40-point win, writes Dave McMenamin of ESPN. It was only Game 6, so L.A. had two chances to close out the series, but the players were determined not to return to Memphis. The Lakers took control right from the start and held a 17-point lead at halftime.

“We understood that we had an opportunity to play in front of our fans, and we wanted to try to end it tonight,” James said.

James had promised to play better following a subpar Game 5, and he kept his word, hitting seven of his first eight shots on the way to 22 points, along with six assists and five rebounds. The victory gave James another career milestone, tying him with former Laker Derek Fisher for the most playoff series wins with 40.

“He’s playing with a sense of urgency,” coach Darvin Ham said of his 38-year-old star. “He knows there’s only so many more of these (postseason runs) he’s going to be able to participate in. So he’s definitely been in the moment.”

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L.A. seems almost unbeatable when Anthony Davis is at the top of his game, states Jim Alexander of The Orange County Register. Along with his 16 points and 14 rebounds on Friday, Davis blocked five shots and affected numerous others. He showed throughout the series that he can dominate the game on defense even when his shot isn’t falling. “No matter what I’m doing, I want to be able to leave a mark on the game defensively and that can kind of fuel my offensive game and the team’s offensive game, and also fuel the defensive end for us as a collective,” Davis said. “So you know, I just (think) next play mentality and just keep going and keep playing and the rest will take care of itself.”
The Lakers can expect strong competition for Austin Reaves when he becomes a free agent this summer, McMenamin adds in another ESPN story. An unidentified Western Conference executive said Reaves would be a good fit on “literally every team in the league” because of his age, skills and salary. The Lakers hold his Early Bird rights and are limited to an $11.4MM offer in the first year of a new contract, but Reaves expressed a desire to stay in L.A. “I would love to be here my whole career,” he said. “Just the way that the fans treat me, the love they have for me, as an undrafted player, it’s kind of like they raised me type of vibe. … It feels like it’s meant to be. It feels like this all happened for a reason and this is where I should be.”
Kyrie Irving was among the fans at courtside for Friday’s game, McMenamin tweets. The Lakers reportedly had interest in acquiring the impending free agent last summer and again before he was traded to the Mavericks in February. Irving left in the third quarter because of the lopsided score, but not before visiting with James’ close friend and business associate Maverick Carter (Twitter link).

Lakers Notes: LeBron, Ham, Davis, Reaves

April 25th, 2023 at 8:01am CST by Arthur Hill

At age 38, LeBron James is still reaching new heights, writes Dave McMenamin of ESPN. For the first time in his 20 NBA seasons, James posted 20 points and 20 rebounds in the same game Monday night as the Lakers rallied for an overtime win to take a commanding 3-1 lead over Memphis.

James’ performance was about much more than stats, however, as he banked in a layup high off the backboard to tie the game with less than a second left in regulation, then delivered a three-point play late in the extra session to put the game out of reach. He followed that final basket with a show of emotion, flexing his biceps and screaming toward the crowd.

“These are the moments that I love,” James said. “I love the postseason. I’ve been a part of a lot of the games and I just love being able to make plays and be out there with my teammates to give them experiences that they maybe never had before.”

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First-year coach Darvin Ham understands that it’s a rare experience to have one of the league’s all-time greatest players in his lineup, per Jim Alexander of The Orange County Register. Ham strikes a balance between marveling at James skills’ and still trying to make him better. “I don’t take it for granted,” he said, “being in the position to coach him.”
James’ heroics came on a rare down night for Anthony Davis, who sources tell McMenamin was slowed by pain in his right hip, which he hurt two and a half weeks ago. Davis made just one of his first eight shots from the field, but still managed 12 points and 11 rebounds while playing 42 minutes. “Things aren’t always going to be perfect,” he said. “Sometimes you got to win ugly. Sometimes you don’t play well, but still try to leave your imprint on the game. And that’s what I tried to do tonight on the defensive end.”
Austin Reaves was L.A.’s leading scorer on Monday with 23 points to go along with four rebounds and six assists. Appearing in his first playoff series, Reaves said he continues to feed off the crowd, which showered him with “MVP” chants once again. “The way that they support me, the way I believe that they love the way that I play. … I’m gonna give it everything I got every night,” Reaves said (video link from HoopsHype)

Lakers Notes: Preparation, Davis, Hachimura, Role Players

April 18th, 2023 at 10:57pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Ja Morant is listed as questionable for Game 2 on Wednesday, which makes the Lakers‘ preparations a little more complicated, Elliott Teaford of the Orange County Register writes.

“It’s difficult,” Lakers guard Austin Reaves said. “It’s so big of a question mark. You don’t know if he’s going to play, if he’s not going to play. We just take care of our work and prepare for everything, every possible outcome, both ways. So that’s really the plan going forward.”

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Anthony Davis sparked the defensive effort against the Grizzlies and Defensive Player of the Year Jaren Jackson Jr. in Game 1. Davis racked up 12 rebounds, seven blocks and three steals while committing just one foul. He also made defensive contributions that didn’t show up on the stat sheet. “On the offensive end, for him, people are double teaming him. And he always makes the right decision and always tries to find the right man or the open man,” Dennis Schröder told Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times. “But on the defensive end, he’s our anchor. He does so much for us.”
Rui Hachimura, a restricted free agent after the season, erupted for 29 points in 30 minutes in Game 1. Memphis guard Desmond Bane is skeptical that Hachimura can come close to that production again in the series, Tim MacMahon of ESPN tweets. “It’s probably the best game of his career. It’s a seven-game series. Let’s see if he can do it again Wednesday,” Bane said.
With Reaves, another restricted free agent, and Hachimura leading the way, the Lakers’ role players made a huge impact in Game 1. Davis believes those players are the key to a deep playoff run, Jovan Buha of The Athletic writes. “We’re going to continue to need those guys,” Davis said. “I think the playoffs is all about, obviously, guys are keying in on the stars, me and (LeBron James), trying to figure out how they can take us out the game. But you win playoff games with your role players.”

Injury Updates: Morant, Payne, James, Davis, George, Gobert, Jokic

April 18th, 2023 at 8:10pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Grizzlies star guard Ja Morant is officially listed as questionable to play in Game 2 of their first-round series against the Lakers, the team’s PR department tweets. Morant is dealing with right hand soreness. He landed hard on the court while committing a charge during the fourth quarter of Game 1.

Adrian Wojnarowski said on the “NBA on ESPN” show that he “does not sense a great deal of optimism” that Morant will play on Wednesday (Twitter link). An MRI on Monday revealed an aggravation of soft tissue bruising in Morant’s hand. He originally injured the hand in the Grizzlies’ April 7 win over Milwaukee, according to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon.

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Suns reserve guard Cameron Payne won’t play in Game 2 against the Clippers on Tuesday, Chris Haynes of TNT tweets. Payne hasn’t played since April 7 due to a back injury.
Both members of the Lakers’ dynamic duo popped up on the injury report submitted the team’s PR department, Jovan Buha of The Athletic tweets. However, they are listed as probable for Game 2 against Memphis, with LeBron James dealing with right foot soreness and Anthony Davis nursing a right foot stress injury.
Clippers forward Paul George did a mix of conditioning and shooting drills during a workout prior to the team’s shootaround on Tuesday, Andrew Greif of the Los Angeles Times reports. George is recovering from a sprained right knee and it remains uncertain whether he’ll play at all during the first-round series.
Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert is listed as questionable to play in Game 2 of their series against the Nuggets on Wednesday due to back spasms, the team’s PR department tweets.
While it would be surprising if he didn’t play in Game 2, Nuggets star Nikola Jokic is also listed as questionable due to a right wrist sprain, Mike Singer of the Denver Post tweets. Jokic participated in practice on Tuesday and didn’t seem to think the sprain was overly serious.

Anthony Davis, Joel Embiid Named Players Of The Month

April 11th, 2023 at 3:28pm CST by Luke Adams

Lakers big man Anthony Davis has been named the Western Conference’s Player of the Month for games played in March and April, while Sixers center Joel Embiid has earned the honor in the Eastern Conference, the NBA announced today (via Twitter).

Davis was limited to 56 total games this season due to injuries, but he appeared in 18 of the Lakers’ 20 contests in March/April, averaging 26.2 points, 12.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and 1.9 blocks in 35.5 minutes per night.

Los Angeles had a 13-5 record in those games despite missing LeBron James for many of them. Davis’ strong play down the stretch helped the Lakers – who were in 12th place in the West at the end of February – move up to No. 7, securing the most favorable slot in the play-in tournament.

Embiid, who was also the East’s Player of the Month in both December and January, earned the honor a third time by capping an MVP-caliber season with 33.3 points, 9.4 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and 1.9 blocks in 33.4 minutes per game across 18 contests in March and April. Philadelphia went 12-6 in those games.

Embiid was the only player to earn three Player of the Month awards this season. Another MVP contender, Nuggets star Nikola Jokic, won it twice in the West, but no other player in either conference was named Player of the Month more than once.

Devin Booker, Stephen Curry, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Brandon Ingram, Jaren Jackson, and Domantas Sabonis were the other Player of the Month nominees in the West, per the NBA, while Giannis Antetokounmpo, Mikal Bridges, Zach LaVine, Donovan Mitchell, and Jayson Tatum were nominated in the East (Twitter links).

Lakers Notes: LeBron, AD, Russell, Bamba, Offseason

April 5th, 2023 at 9:43pm CST by Rory Maher

Lakers stars LeBron James (right foot soreness) and Anthony Davis (right foot stress injury) are both active for Wednesday’s game against the Clippers, tweets Mark Medina of NBA.com. Both players had previously been considered game-time decisions, per Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

As Dave McMenamin of ESPN writes, the availability of the team’s two best players was up in the air leading into tonight’s game after going to overtime to defeat the Jazz in Utah on Tuesday night. James played in 38 minutes, while Davis played 42 — both high marks since returning from their respective foot injuries in March and January.

“The extra five minutes definitely didn’t help,” James said. “It definitely didn’t help but we needed to get the win.”

Wednesday will also mark the first time Davis has played in back-to-back games for several months, McMenamin notes, with the Lakers’ medical staff concerned about a possible re-injury due to overuse. Head coach Darvin Ham said the team wouldn’t risk jeopardizing anyone’s long-term health for a short-term situation — the Lakers and Clippers are tied with identical 41-38 records.

“If we see that they won’t have any issues, in terms of their health, and we’re not putting them at risk, then we’ll proceed,” Ham said. “If there’s any kind of question marks, we’ll walk through them, talk through them, and go from there.”

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Guard D’Angelo Russell (left foot soreness) was ruled out of Tuesday’s game for precautionary reasons, tweets McMenamin. Ham said Russell has been dealing with the issue for over a year and called it “bad timing” that it started to bother him recently. However, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN said on Get Up (YouTube link) that there was optimism Russell would be able to return on Wednesday and that was indeed the case — he started at point guard.
Backup center Mohamed Bamba, who has been out for a month with a high left ankle sprain, was initially probable for Wednesday’s game (Twitter link via McMenamin) and was later upgraded to available. It will be interesting to see if Bamba gets minutes over Wenyen Gabriel, who has played well this season off the bench.
In another story for ESPN, McMenamin explores how the Lakers can retain six players who helped reshape the roster. The six are Russell, Bamba, Malik Beasley, Jarred Vanderbilt, Rui Hachimura and Davon Reed, all of whom could be free agents in the offseason, though the Lakers are extremely unlikely to release Vanderbilt, who only has a small partial guarantee ($300K) on his team-friendly $4.7MM salary for 2023/24 (it becomes fully guaranteed if they don’t waive him by the end of June).

Anthony Davis, Mikal Bridges Named Players Of The Week

April 3rd, 2023 at 2:45pm CST by Rory Maher

Lakers big man Anthony Davis and Nets wing Mikal Bridges have been named the NBA’s players of the week, the league announced (via Twitter).

Davis, the Western Conference’s winner, averaged 38.7 points, 11.7 rebounds, 1.0 steal and 2.0 blocks on .652/.333/.806 shooting in leading the Lakers to a 3-0 record last week. After winning six of seven, L.A. is currently 40-38, the No. 7 seed in the West.

Bridges, the East’s winner, averaged 33.0 points, 5.7 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.3 steals on .500/.455/.885 shooting last week as the Nets went 3-0. Brooklyn is close to locking up the No. 6 seed and a guaranteed playoff spot, currently sitting with a 43-35 record and a two-game lead (and the tiebreaker) on the No. 7 Heat.

According to the NBA (Twitter link), the other nominees in the West were Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Brandon Ingram and Domantas Sabonis, while Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jrue Holiday, Jalen Brunson, Immanuel Quickley, Donovan Mitchell and Jayson Tatum were nominated in the East.

Los Angeles Notes: Leonard, Gordon, Showdown, Davis

April 2nd, 2023 at 5:26pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard played his first back-to-back since April 2021 over the weekend and his body held up well. He played 59 total minutes across the two games and didn’t have any issues, Andrew Greif of the Los Angeles Times tweets.

“We’ll see how I feel (Sunday) but right now I feel pretty good,” he said.

Leonard had 40 points against New Orleans but the Clippers still suffered their second straight loss.

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Eric Gordon missed Saturday’s game, but the Clippers don’t seem too concerned about his hip injury, Greif adds in another tweet. The Clippers don’t play again until Wednesday, giving Gordon extra time to recover.
The Clippers entered Sunday with a tenuous hold on the sixth spot in the Western Conference, which would allow them to avoid the play-in tournament. They have a showdown with the Lakers, one of the teams breathing down their necks, in their next outing. “We got a big game coming up on Wednesday,” coach Tyronn Lue told Law Murray of The Athletic and other media members. “It’s a big, big game for us. (Saturday) was a big game for us, but now losing tonight makes Wednesday’s game even bigger.”
The Lakers had won five of their last six games heading into Sunday’s contest against Houston. Anthony Davis posted back-to-back 38-point games in their last two outings despite a scary looking ankle injury, which was determined not to be serious. Davis believes the reconfigured Lakers are poised to make a deep playoff run, Dave McMenamin of ESPN writes. “I think we’ve got everything we need. It’s just about going out and applying it,” Davis said. “We can definitely make a run. We’ve got all the right pieces from top to bottom.”

L.A. Notes: Batum, Morris, Powell, D-Lo, Lakers, Schröder

March 28th, 2023 at 9:28pm CST by Rory Maher

Nicolas Batum is replacing Marcus Morris as the Clippers‘ starting forward and will stay in the role for the rest of the season, head coach Tyronn Lue told reporters, including Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times.

“It was nothing that Marcus did wrong, just trying something different,” Lue said. “And when you’re not playing well, you want to try something different, and Marcus was all for it. We have to sacrifice if we want to win at a high level.”

As Greif writes, there’s less clarity about who will back up Batum. Morris and Robert Covington are the two primary options, and Lue was noncommittal on which player might have the edge. At least for the immediate future, Covington should receive playing time, as Morris has entered the league’s health and safety protocols and has been ruled out of Wednesday’s game in Memphis (Twitter link via ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk).

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Clippers guard Norman Powell, who is questionable for Wednesday’s contest after missing the past 11 games with a left shoulder subluxation, will be reinserted into the rotation once he returns, Greif writes in the same piece. “We need him back. We need his juice. We need his scoring,” Lue said of Powell.
Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell (hip) and big man Anthony Davis (foot) are probable to play in Wednesday’s game at Chicago, tweets Mark Medina of NBA.com. Forward LeBron James (foot) is questionable. Russell missed the past two games with his injury, while James just returned Sunday after a 13-game absence.
Guard Dennis Schröder, who is playing on a veteran’s minimum contract in his second stint with the Lakers, has provided a valuable spark all season long, according to Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times. “It’s a lot of energy, man. He plays with such a good passion. He’s energetic,” Davis said. “That’s how he plays, he’s scrappy and he saves a fastbreak, comes back down and draws a foul. He’s kind of another spark. Got the crowd into it. But that’s Dennis. That’s how he plays. … He’s leaving it all on the floor. Everyone is. I mean, the position that we’re in, you got to be able to leave it all on the floor, give 110%. And he’s giving like 150. He’s leaving it all on the floor, laying everything out on the line for us to get a win. And it’s contagious.”
Mirjam Swanson of the Southern California News Group is skeptical the Clippers and Lakers can make deep playoff runs in the West, noting that injuries have played a role in the two teams’ inconsistency. She believes the Nuggets, Grizzlies and even the Kings should be favored over the two L.A. teams due to their continuity.

L.A. Notes: Russell, SGA, AD, George, Clippers

March 24th, 2023 at 8:59pm CST by Rory Maher

Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell will miss Friday’s key matchup against the Thunder due to a right hip injury. Dennis Schröder will start in his place.

“It’s not too serious, but serious enough where we need to manage him,” Ham said, per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin (Twitter link). Ham added that Russell is considered day-to-day.

The Thunder, meanwhile, will have their best player available, as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is active after previously being listed as questionable with a nagging abdominal strain (Twitter links via Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman).

The Mavericks, Lakers, Thunder and Pelicans are all currently tied at 36-37 in the Nos. 8-11 spots in the West. The Wolves (No. 7) sit at 37-37, while the Jazz (No. 12) are 35-37.

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In a lengthy interview with McMenamin, Lakers star Anthony Davis expressed confidence in the team’s retooled roster, and it sounds as though he would like to see the group stick together beyond this season. “If we actually have a full summer, full training camp, go through an entire season, who knows the position we’ll be in,” Davis said. ” … The team we have now, we feel like not only can we make noise this year, and I like our chance against anybody to be honest. You put anybody against us, I like our chances. … Who knows what we could be, what threat we could be next year and then years to come if they work it out and are able to keep this group together.” As McMenamin notes, beyond Davis, LeBron James and Max Christie, no other player has a fully guaranteed contract for 2023/24, so the Lakers will have a lot of decisions to make this summer.
The Clippers were glad that Paul George avoided a major injury when he sprained his knee. He’s expected to be reevaluated in two-to-three weeks, but if the Clippers clinch a top-six seed and a berth in the playoffs, George potentially returning in a first-round series is considered “optimistic,” according to Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. Eric Gordon will start in George’s stead for the rest of the season, Youngmisuk writes.
It’s impossible to replace a player of George’s caliber, so multiple players will have to step up to make up for his lost production on both ends of the court. Law Murray of The Athletic believes Kawhi Leonard, Russell Westbrook, Gordon, Terance Mann and Norman Powell are the top candidates for more responsibilities with George sidelined. Powell has been out with a shoulder injury, but he has been getting on-court work in and is close to a return, per Murray.