The Memphis Grizzlies had a night to forget as Friday night the Los Angeles Lakers thrashed them by dropping 40 points in the first round of the playoffs, (125-85). It is the most asymmetrical defeat in Grizzlies' postseason history and by any team in this year's playoffs.
With this win, the Lakers won the 7-game series by 4-2 and have become the sixth No. 7 seed to upset their opponent in the first round. After such a humiliating defeat, two of the Grizzlies' stars are under a lot of criticism due to the comments they made on different occasions this season. One thing was for sure, this isn’t how the Grizzlies thought their season would fold. They had high aspirations and were pretty confident this year, maybe overconfident.
Ja Morant
Ja Morant of the Grizzlies' made more headlines for his court conduct than with performances on the court, including dissing the Western Conference in December last year by calling Boston Celtics their most significant threat, and saying his most notable comment that the Grizzlies are "good in the West."
Well, it turned out the Grizzlies were so good in the West. On the big night, Morant played his worst game of the series. He had a silent shooting night, something he mentioned he needs to work on as he only scored 10 points in 34 minutes and shot 3 for 15 from the floor.
During Friday's game, it was evident that the 23-year-old guard was still dealing with an injury on his shooting hand. He entered the playoffs while nursing the injury before re-aggravating it twice in the series against LA.
But with the first-round exit, he will have a more extended off-season and more than enough
time to recover from the injury.
However, Ja Morant is not the only Grizzlies player under criticism. The defeat has damaged the longest-tenured Memphis roster as well and mainly due to a statement he recently made.
Dillon The Villain Brooks
After Grizzlies tied the series, (1-1), Dillon Brooks called out James as "Old" and said he doesn't respect anyone until they score 40 on him.
“I don't care he's old. I was waiting for him to do that. I'm expecting him to do that in Game 4, Game 5. He wanted to say something when I got my fourth foul. He should have been saying that earlier on. I poke bears. I don't respect no one until they come and give me 40.” Brooks said.
And clearly, LeBron took that personally and, in Game 4, dropped 22 points and grabbed 20
boards in the first 20-20 line of his career.
On Saturday, after the Lakers dropped precisely 40 points on Grizzlies, LeBron quoted
Southern rapper "Mystikal" lyrics to summarize the opening-round match-up.
He didn't stop there and went on to tweet some lyrics from Jay-Z's 2006 song, "Trouble" trolling Brooks indirectly by using his fitting post-victory playlist.
Shortly after LeBron called out Brooks on social media, Grizzlies forward deleted all his Instagram posts.
NBA analyst and Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas also got in on the action, calling out Brooks.
“Didn't my man say, I don't respect nobody until you give me 40? It's like, Bam! You asked for the 40? Here's the 40.