{"id":489441,"date":"2026-01-03T12:46:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T12:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/489441\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T12:46:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T12:46:14","slug":"luka-doncic-and-lebron-james-lead-lakers-to-win-over-grizzlies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/489441\/","title":{"rendered":"Luka Doncic and LeBron James lead Lakers to win over Grizzlies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There have been good weeks and bad weeks for the Lakers<\/a> this season. <\/p>\n

Ahead of Friday\u2019s game against the Memphis Grizzlies, they were trending downward after losing four of their last five games.<\/p>\n

The Memphis game turned into a microcosm of that trend, with the Lakers building leads through effort and intensity only to see them crumble behind less-inspired play.<\/p>\n

In the end, standout performances from Luka Doncic<\/a> and LeBron James<\/a> helped the Lakers surge late and hold on for a 128-121 win<\/a> at Crypto.com Arena.<\/p>\n

Doncic and James made sure the 15-point lead the Lakers held before it dissolved by the end of the third quarter wasn\u2019t completely achieved in vain. Doncic made 17 of 20 free throws in scoring 34 points with eight assists and six rebounds, and James had 31 points, nine rebounds and six assists.<\/p>\n

They got help from Jake LaRavia<\/a>, who scored 21 points on eight-for-12 shooting in addition to nine rebounds and stellar defense. Marcus Smart<\/a> had 13 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, and Jaxson Hayes<\/a> scored 12 points off the bench.<\/p>\n

The Lakers improved to an NBA-best 11-0 when within five or fewer points of their opponent heading into the final five minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have a lot of people that closed the game, especially (me), when LeBron, he took over today,\u201d Doncic said. \u201c(Jarred Vanderbilt<\/a>) hit a big shot. Jake hit a big shot. Jaxson had a big dunk. So, it\u2019s just everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lakers <\/p>\n

Lakers center Jaxson Hayes dunks over Memphis Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr. (8) and center Jock Landale (31) in the fourth quarter Friday.<\/p>\n

(Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

It was a group effort that helped the Lakers seal the win in the fourth quarter. It also marked the first time since March that Doncic and James scored at least 30 points in the same game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just playing and playing in rhythm,\u201d James said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to find ways that we can be productive. Obviously, Luka did a great job of getting to the free-throw line. … He made a step-back three, a big-time shot there. <\/p>\n

\u201cMyself, just trying to sprinkle in a little bit here, a little bit there. Just trying to be consistent and be super efficient with my play. So we worked well off each other today and we led the group.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lakers (21-11) went down 110-109 in the fourth quarter before going on a 12-2 run to take the lead for good. <\/p>\n

The teams will meet again here Sunday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made some big-time plays offensively and we were sharing the ball, and guys made some big-time shots,\u201d James said. \u201cVando\u2019s three, Jake\u2019s three on the other side of their bench at the end of the shot clock, Jax had a big-time dunk down the middle. So, those are key moments. And then defensively, we were able to get a couple shots, get a couple rebounds. That allowed us to kind of start pushing the lead up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" Vincent update<\/p>\n

Gabe Vincent (lumbar back strain) missed his seventh straight game, but Redick said the team hopes he can practice Saturday and that if he does, it will \u201cbe modified.\u201d <\/p>\n

Redick said Vincent will not play Sunday against the Grizzlies, but the hope is that he can play either at New Orleans on Tuesday or at San Antonio on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to get him exposure to live play, and with the travel day on Monday, that\u2019s gonna be tough,\u201d Redick said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There have been good weeks and bad weeks for the Lakers this season. Ahead of Friday\u2019s game against…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":489442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[38124,1582,276,262,2384,1910,220798,10005,2961,8604,5615,3363,224,5337,3365,449,24566,134317,3007,38272],"class_list":{"0":"post-489441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-assist","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-defense","12":"tag-end","13":"tag-game","14":"tag-good-week","15":"tag-grizzlies","16":"tag-la","17":"tag-lakers","18":"tag-lead","19":"tag-lebron-james","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-losangeles","22":"tag-luka-doncic","23":"tag-point","24":"tag-rebound","25":"tag-redick","26":"tag-team","27":"tag-third-quarter"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115831242623535936","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489441","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=489441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}