Memphis Grizzlies: 3 Keys To Victory Against The Los Angeles Lakers
By Chris Kern
Win The Battle In The Paint
The Grizzlies need to do a good job in the painted area. The Lakers are one of the best offensive teams inside but they do struggle to defend the paint on the defensive end.
They are allowing 50.9 points per game in the paint while Memphis allows just 42.9 points per game inside which is the third-lowest mark in the league.
Then on the flip side of that, the Grizzlies only score 46.6 points per game in the paint which is just 19th in the league.
While the Lakers are near the top of the league in that stat. Their 56.4 paint points per game are the second highest mark in the NBA.
These teams do play different paces so a lot of those numbers are expected in some way. The % of each teams’ points scored in the paint is a little bit better of a way to judge this state.
The Lakers score 49.8% of their offense inside which is the best mark in the NBA. The Grizzlies on the other hand only score 44.7% of their points in the paint which is in the middle as the 14h best in the league.
These numbers will tell part of the story but Memphis will just need to go out there and compete. They have been successful in taking away teams offensive focus and they’ll need to do that even more so in this game.
The Lakers aren’t a good three-point shooting team so you can’t allow them to have success inside early on to open up shots on the perimeter.
Tyson Chandler will make things difficult on the offensive end of the floor so they’ll need a collective effort inside.
They will need their bigs to stretch the floor so they can get the Lakers bigs out of the paint to open up driving lanes for the guards.
This is a focus for the Grizzlies in every game but in this game, it is even more so. They need to come out quick and dominate inside like they’re more than capable of doing.