{"id":489194,"date":"2026-01-03T10:13:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T10:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/489194\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T10:13:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T10:13:14","slug":"memphis-plays-los-angeles-following-morants-40-point-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/489194\/","title":{"rendered":"Memphis plays Los Angeles following Morant’s 40-point game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Memphis Grizzlies<\/a> (15-18, ninth in the Western Conference) vs. Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> (20-11, fifth in the Western Conference)<\/p>\n

Los Angeles; Sunday, 9:30 p.m. EST<\/p>\n

BOTTOM LINE: Memphis visits the Los Angeles Lakers after Ja Morant<\/a> scored 40 points in the Grizzlies’ 139-136 overtime loss to the Philadelphia 76ers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Lakers are 15-8 against Western Conference opponents. Los Angeles is seventh in the Western Conference scoring 116.8 points while shooting 49.9% from the field.<\/p>\n

The Grizzlies are 13-9 in conference games. Memphis is third in the Western Conference with 46.2 rebounds per game led by Santi Aldama<\/a> averaging 6.7.<\/p>\n

The Lakers average 11.7 made 3-pointers per game this season, 2.7 fewer makes per game than the Grizzlies give up (14.4). The Grizzlies’ 45.7% shooting percentage from the field this season is 3.3 percentage points lower than the Lakers have given up to their opponents (49.0%).<\/p>\n

The teams square off for the second time this season. The Lakers won the last matchup 117-112 on Nov. 1. Luka Doncic<\/a> scored 44 points to help lead the Lakers to the victory.<\/p>\n

TOP PERFORMERS: Doncic is averaging 33.5 points, 8.2 rebounds, 8.7 assists and 1.5 steals for the Lakers. LeBron James<\/a> is averaging 17.0 points over the last 10 games.<\/p>\n

Jaren Jackson Jr<\/a>. is averaging 18.4 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.5 blocks for the Grizzlies. Morant is averaging 40 points and two steals over the past 10 games.<\/p>\n

LAST 10 GAMES: Lakers: 4-6, averaging 111.8 points, 41.2 rebounds, 22.9 assists, 8.0 steals and 4.6 blocks per game while shooting 47.2% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 119.8 points per game.<\/p>\n

Grizzlies: 5-5, averaging 121.7 points, 45.7 rebounds, 29.7 assists, 9.5 steals and 6.3 blocks per game while shooting 47.6% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 117.5 points.<\/p>\n

INJURIES: Lakers: Gabe Vincent<\/a>: day to day (back), Austin Reaves<\/a>: out (calf), Adou Thiero<\/a>: out (knee), Rui Hachimura<\/a>: out (calf).<\/p>\n

Grizzlies: John Konchar<\/a>: out (thumb), Vince Williams Jr<\/a>.: out (knee), Scotty Pippen Jr<\/a>.: out (toe), Zach Edey<\/a>: out (ankle), Ty Jerome<\/a>: out (calf), Brandon Clarke<\/a>: out (calf).<\/p>\n

——<\/p>\n

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive<\/a> and data from Sportradar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Memphis Grizzlies (15-18, ninth in the Western Conference) vs. Los Angeles Lakers (20-11, fifth in the Western Conference)…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":394392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[220714,1582,276,5723,2961,224,3141,5337,3135,1260],"class_list":{"0":"post-489194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-220714","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-espn","12":"tag-la","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-memphis-grizzlies","17":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115830641073834770","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}