The Lakers and Grizzlies had never actually faced off in the postseason. Until now. When the Lakers defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first game of the Western Conference Play-In Tournament, they clinched the No. 7 seed and the right to face the Grizzlies in the first round. That seemed to be more than fine with Memphis' roster as well as Dillon Brooks made it clear the Grizzlies wanted to face LeBron James and the Lakers to open the postseason. While there is plenty of basketball left to be played in this series, it was James and the Lakers that came out on top in Game 1, 128-112, thanks largely in part to contributions from the supporting cast.
As great as James and Anthony Davis were for Los Angeles, the Lakers do not win this game without the performances from Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura as the pair combined for 52 points, nine rebounds and five assists to hold off a feisty Grizzlies team that gave Los Angeles all they could handle for roughly 45 minutes before the Lakers used a 15-0 run late in the fourth quarter to put the game away for good. With the win, the Lakers have stolen home-court advantage away from the Grizzlies as well as the momentum in this series.
Here are the three biggest takeaways from Game 1.
1. What a game for the role players
When the Lakers won the championship in 2020, they got over 55 points per game from LeBron James and Anthony Davis. At this time this season, it seemed as though they'd need even more if they planned to make much noise in the 2023 playoffs. The Lakers tore down their entire supporting cast to trade for Russell Westbrook. They had to rebuild it on the fly in January and February. If you would've told any Laker fan that James and Davis would combine for only 43 points in the playoff opener, they would've assumed that it was an ugly loss, not a 16-point win.
But neither James nor Davis was the leading scorer for the Lakers. That honor belonged to Rui Hachimura, who scored 29 points in his playoff debut. Neither James nor Davis was the closer down the stretch for the Lakers, either. That was Austin Reaves, who scored 14 points in the fourth quarter and made it clear that he is, indeed, him. D'Angelo Russell started the second-half 3-point explosion. Jarred Vanderbilt defended Ja Morant.
This isn't to say that James or Davis struggled. They combined for 15 steals and blocks to lead the Laker defense, and 43 points on 54% shooting isn't exactly nothing. But the victory was decidedly a team effort, and it sets a precedent that the Lakers really needed this postseason. James is 38 years old. As we saw in the first half, Davis is going to get banged up across four rounds. It ain't 2020 anymore. The Lakers can't win a championship as a two-man team. They needed shot-creation out of their role players, and those role players more than delivered on Sunday.
2. Waiting on Morant
No analysis of this series matters if the Grizzlies are without their best player. Ja Morant suffered a hand injury in the fourth quarter and missed the final five minutes and change of his team's loss. X-rays came back negative, but we don't yet know how much time he'll miss, if any. He said after the game that his status for Game 2 was "in jeopardy."
The Grizzlies played the Golden State Warriors evenly across the first three games of their second-round series last season. Morant went down, and then the Warriors took care of business from there. Tyus Jones is among the best backup point guards in the NBA, but asking him to lead an offense for 40 minutes against the second-best defense in the NBA since the trade deadline is not realistic. Memphis cannot win this series if Morant doesn't return quickly. It's that simple.
That's the risk Morant runs with his playing style. He is one of the most explosive guards that the league has ever seen, and that leads to a number of scary falls and hard fouls. Most of the time, he gets up. He didn't on Sunday. And now, the Grizzlies await news on their superstar guard.
3. Can the Lakers maintain their small ball?
The Lakers largely played well defensively in Game 1. The one exception came against Jaren Jackson Jr. Davis defended him well when the two were matched up, but that was a rarity. Davis spent most of the game on Xavier Tillman. Doing so allowed him to function primarily as a help defender. However, that decision forced LeBron James and Rui Hachimura to guard Jackson for most of the game.
He bullied them for 31 points on 13-of-21 shooting. The Lakers didn't budge. They didn't even play a backup center, opting to keep James and Hachimura in as co-centers when Davis rested rather than use Wenyen Gabriel or Mo Bamba. Neither of them is particularly stout in the post either, so there isn't really a good option on this roster for those minutes.
That might mean that the Lakers need to match Davis' minutes with Jackson's, or at the very least have Davis defend Jackson one-on-one a bit more. It would be a sacrifice elsewhere, as Davis did an incredible job in his help role Sunday, but if Jackson is going to score that easily, the Lakers may need to just bite that bullet and make the change.