Brandon Ingram returned to the lineup and lead the Lakers in scoring with 23 points, but the Lakers could not overcome their overall off night, losing to the Grizzlies 109-99. Jordan Clarkson followed with 22 points and KCP added 16 points to round out the starters. Larry Nance Jr. lead the 2nd unit with a near double-double of 12 points and 9 rebounds.
Final Score: vs. Memphis 109-99 [L]
Full article: http://www.nba.com/games/20171227/MEMLAL#/recap
Next Game: vs. LA Clippers (12/29)
Highlights: *Courtesy of Rapid Highlights*
Lakers are now 0-3 in their current home stand. With the final score, the Grizzlies should've won by a bigger margin. Not a lot of things went right for the Lakers for the Lakers on both ends of the floor. The tight, defensive activity was non-existent minus a portion of the third quarter where the Lakers made a run to tie the game up at 76 before the 4th quarter. Memphis was getting all kinds of looks they wanted. They didn't even need Marc Gasol to go off this game. Tyreke Evans, Deyonta Davis, and Jarell Martin picked up the slack. The biggest headline this game was Kyle Kuzma's mega off-game. Kuz finished with 9 points and 8 rebounds, but was 4-24 from the field. Looking at his shot, it looked really flat if some of them are hitting on the front iron of the rim. I talked about this when the Lakers won in Philly since he had an off game there as well, Kuzma will have his off-nights. All rookies have their bumps on the road. It wasn't Kuzma's poor shooting, the Lakers overall did not shoot the ball well at 37% from the field. With poor shooting and poor defense, the Lakers should've lost big time, but they only lost by 10. Offensive rebounding kept this from being a complete blowout. The disparity was 22 offensive boards to Memphis' 5. That was a lot of 2nd chance points opportunities for the Lakers to patch up the woeful shooting this game.
