Dennis Schröder made the play of the night when he stole the ball and finished a three-point play with 7.6 seconds remaining to lift the Los Angeles Lakers to a 122-121 win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night at Crypto.com Arena.
“We wanted to trap first before we fouled,” said Schröder, who had 19 points. “I saw Bane catch the ball, he had his back to me and I made a play. I got the steal, pushed the ball, got fouled and finished the play.”
Memphis (31-14) saw their 11-game winning streak come to an end with the loss while Los Angeles (21-25) ended their five-game homestand with a 2-3 record after picking up a gritty win.
“To get a win like this is a momentum swing,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. “The guys were kind of down after the Sacramento game, but we addressed areas that we needed to get better. There’s no way we win this game if we didn’t have the type of fight that we had.”
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The Lakers remained without Anthony Davis (foot), Lonnie Walker (knee) and Austin Reaves (hamstring), but still saw six players finish in double figures.
Russell Westbrook led the Lakers with 29 points and six assists while LeBron James had 23 points, nine rebounds and six assists. Troy Brown Jr. and Kendrick Nunn each added 11 points apiece for Los Angeles.
“We were resilient the whole game,” James said. “We stuck with the game plan. We’ve given ourselves a chance to win games.”
Ja Morant led Memphis with 22 points and eight assists. Brandon Clarke and Tyus Jones added 20 points apiece while Steven Adams had 16 points and 17 rebounds. Jaren Jackson Jr. added 12 points and four blocks for the Grizzlies.
The Lakers were outrebounded 63-47 and trailed by as many as 13 late in the third after a Jones three-pointer gave the Grizzlies an 88-75 lead with 1:08 remaining.
However, the Grizzlies struggled by shooting 26 of 40 from the foul line and allowed the Lakers to finish with a 20-4 advantage in fast-break points.
Los Angeles went on to outscore Memphis 41-32 in the fourth and locked in defensively down the stretch to pull out one of their biggest wins of the season.
“They outcompeted us for 48 minutes. Plain and simple. Terrible effort,” Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins said.
The Lakers used a 15-7 run over the final 3:04 of the game to overcome a seven-point deficit, trailing 114-107.
“We gave up too many second-chance points. Just have to win the 50-50 plays,” Morant said. “We’ve got a lot of good, but a lot of cleaning up to do.”
Schröder went on to score seven of the Lakers final 15 points and completed a three-point play with 7.6 seconds after stealing the ball from Bane and converting the game-winning layup.
“Our guys showed a lot of character,” Ham said.
The Lakers will next travel to face the Portland Trail Blazers (21-25) on Sunday evening before hosting the Los Angeles Clippers (25-24) on Tuesday night.
