LeBron James gives the Lakers’ supporting cast the credit for Game 1 victory

In the fourth quarter of Sunday’s Game 1 of their first-round series against the Memphis Grizzlies, the Los Angeles Lakers were still holding onto a six-point advantage.

LeBron James and Anthony Davis both tried just one shot in the opening 11 minutes of the fourth period.

A bench player and a player who was undrafted out of college just two years ago took over, but L.A. still raced away with a 128-112 victory.

Nine of Rui Hachimura’s 29 points came in the fourth quarter, tying Mychal Thompson’s Lakers franchise record for the most points scored by a substitute in a postseason game. Austin Reaves finished the game with 23 points after going 5 for 5 in the fourth quarter, including nine straight points late in the period.

James, who had 21 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 blocks, claimed that “our supporting cast” helped the team win the game tonight.

With things looking iffy at halftime, the Lakers needed the additional effort from their team. Davis, who completed the game with 22 points, 12 rebounds, 7 blocks, and 3 steals to become the first player to record that kind of postseason statline since Tim Duncan over 20 years ago, sustained a stinger to his right shoulder and was forced to leave the game late in the second quarter.

At the time, the Lakers were six points down.

After six minutes of play in the third quarter, Hachimura went 4-for-4 from three-point range, and Los Angeles regained the lead. The fourth-year forward, who was acquired in a late January trade with Washington, said that all of those shots were ones he had particularly drilled before the series, with Lakers assistant coach Phil Handy researching the Grizzlies’ defensive weaknesses that Hachimura could exploit.

I have to be prepared to make those kinds of shots because of the way they guard me—they’ll be in the paint, said Hachimura.

While posing a challenge to Hachimura in Game 2, Grizzlies guard Desmond Bane stated as much.

Make him hit shots was our game plan heading in, and he did just that, Bane said. “Honk your horn. It’s likely his best performance to yet. The series has seven games. Wednesday, let’s see if he can do it once again.

Reaves, who joined the Lakers on a two-way contract in the summer of 2021 after being undrafted out of Oklahoma, and who was later upgraded to a full-time player before the season started, provided the conclusion.

You aspire to perform on a stage like this, Reaves said. “And I enjoyed myself and got hot late.”

Since May 15, 1988, when James Worth, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Byron Scott did it, the Lakers had not had four players score 20 or more points in a playoff game. D’Angelo Russell (19 points, seven assists) also came close to making it five.

There were hints of deterioration even though Los Angeles had won 10 of its previous 12 games, including Tuesday’s play-in victory over Minnesota to claim the No. 7 seed over No. 2 Memphis. The Lakers struggled in their final four regular-season contests, which included a defeat to the Clippers, and their performance against Minnesota was, at best, fragmented and, at worst, reckless.

Darvin Ham, the Lakers’ head coach, stated his squad reset during the four days between their victory over the Wolves and Game 1 versus Memphis.

“Possessions got away from us in the last week or so of the season, the play-in game,” Ham said. “Without a pass or with one pass and a shot, we lost possessions.”

Following a team speech from James and Davis about the enhanced focus needed for the playoffs, L.A. seemed to have regained the momentum that had propelled it to the playoffs in the first place.

How can we best use this group to produce as much as we can? Ham stated, elaborating on the purpose of the break. And in this way. This is what will work against this team, and this is what we need to investigate; this is what we need to set aside. Being new and looking closely at our offensive to see what’s been successful and unsuccessful, in my opinion, were both contributing factors.

James concentrated on some of the negatives from Sunday’s game even though the Lakers took a decisive early lead in the series by denying the Grizzlies home-court advantage as they attempted to become the first No. 7 seed to pull off an upset since San Antonio in 2010. He acknowledged that the Grizzlies scored 15 points as a result of Los Angeles’ 16 turnovers while accepting blame for his own five.

The men, in James’ opinion, “definitely understood that assignment and were really good tonight.” But I believe we can do better.