The Los Angeles Lakers lost 131-114 at the hands of the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night in a game that was never particularly close. The Lakers tried to hold their own despite missing Anthony Davis, Rui Hachimura, Chirstian Wood and Jarred Vanderbilt, but it was always going to be an uphill battle against a motivated Grizzlies team. Without Davis, the Lakers defense obviously struggled.

But it wasn’t much better on the offensive side, as the Lakers shot 44. 1% from the field and 31. 3% from beyond the arc.

Outside of LeBron James, no one was able to get going. Lakers outside of LeBron went 9-for-37 from 3-point range and 26-for-69 from the field. Plenty of those misses were not necessarily well-contested either.

The Grizzlies did not play elite defense, causing the Lakers to struggle. It was more self-inflicted wounds on that end of the floor. And James spoke about the feeling that gives L.

A. “Obviously when you’re getting good looks and they’re not going down, I think it can be demoralizing for us as a group and for individuals at times. But guys kept shooting when they were open.

We just haven’t gotten it going from the outside as a collective group. ”In total, the Lakers appear far more vulnerable than they did after a 3-0 start to the season. They completed their first road trip of the season 1-4 and are now back to .

500 on the year. James tried to explained why it might have happened that way. “Obviously there’s more games for our teams to scout us,” James said.

“When it was game one, they didn’t know what we were doing. Teams have had an opportunity to see what we’re doing and try to take things away. Then when you have two starters out, you try take even more things away and make some of the other guys try to beat us.

“We’re still executing, but it doesn’t look that way when the shots aren’t going in. We had some great execution tonight where shots literally did not fall. We executed to a T and they did not fall.

But the execution offensively, I was proud of. We got to compete and we got to defend. We gave up 50% shooting and they shot the 3-ball well, they got to the paint, they got offensive rebounds, second-chance points and transition points as well.

So it wasn’t too much about our offense even though we didn’t shoot the ball well. We got to do a better job of that, but defensively, we got to hang our hat on that too. Because we didn’t shoot the ball well in a couple of those earlier games as well but we were defending at a high level.

”The Lakers were not billed as an elite shooting team when the season began, but Wednesday night was still uncharacteristic, and it’s hard to win games with those types of numbers. The assumption is that things will turn around for L. A.

naturally, especially once they get healthy. Ja Morant doesn’t like the LakersPerhaps the most motivated person on the floor on Wednesday was Ja Morant. The Grizzlies star had several on-court moments with LeBron James that showed how fired up he was to be getting a chance to win against the Lakers.

Morant’s issues run deeper than just LeBron, though, as he has grown a dislike for the franchise with their wins against him over the last two seasons. Have you subscribed to our YouTube channel? It’s the best way to watch player interviews, exclusive coverage from events, participate in live shows, and more!