The Memphis Grizzlies entered Wednesday’s home game against the Los Angeles Lakers one loss from being eliminated in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.
As the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, losing in five games against a Lakers team that had to make it out of the Play-In Tournament would have qualified as embarrassing.
Heading into Game 5 of the first-round playoff series, a lot of the talk surrounded immaturity and jaw-flapping on the part of the young Grizzlies.
“We have to go and back it up. That’s what I tell our guys all the time,” Memphis Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins said ahead of Game 5, per Sportsnaut’s Mark Medina. “What’s gotten us here is our confidence and our swag. But we also have to be able to back it up and do it on Grizzlies terms.”
The main culprit of this trash-talking, Dillon Brooks, did very little at home in Game 5. In fact, he finished with eight points on 3-of-15 shooting.
For a while there, it looked like Brooks’ disaster class of a performance and the Lakers’ refusal to go away would catch up to Memphis at home. Los Angeles found itself within one point after LeBron James hammered home an alley-oop with 6:49 remaining in the third quarter. The Lakers were also within one point with 3:52 remaining in the third quarter while possessing the ball.
That’s when the Grizzlies went on an absolutely incredible 26-2 run spanning less than six minutes in the third and fourth quarters. The star backcourt tandem of Ja Morant and Desmond Bane spearheaded this extended run by combining for 16 points. It was a thing to behold.
FedEx Forum was absolutely rocking as the 51-win Grizzlies looked something like we saw during the regular season for the first time in the playoffs.
Limited to injury throughout the series, Morant finished with 31 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. Bane put in a team high 33 points as the two combined for 64 of the Memphis Grizzlies 116 points.
They vastly outplayed Los Angeles’ starting backcourt of Austin Reaves and D’Angelo Russell (28 points on 8-of-24 shooting. Meanwhile, King James hit on just 5-of-17 from the field as Memphis sent this back to Los Angeles for Game 6 via a 116-99 win.
Memphis Grizzlies still have work to do
A total of ninety-five percent of the teams that take a 3-1 series lead in a best-of-seven series go on to win said series in the NBA Playoffs. Memphis now has to go back to Southern California with an opportunity to bring this back home for Game 7.
Taking on a battle-tested LeBron James on his home turf following a disastrous performance from the four-time NBA champion will test the Grizzlies. Questions surrounding their perceived lack of maturity will come up should things not go swimmingly early come Friday evening.
“Obviously we’re far from where we need to be from a maturity standpoint,” Memphis Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins said earlier in the series“This is all experience you can only gain from. Nothing is going to change overnight.”
This will be tested in more ways than one. But at least for now, the Grizzlies were able to avoid an embarrassing first-round exit in the playoffs.
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