Ayton

It wasn’t an accident that the Lakers’ first play went to Deandre Ayton. Or that the star big man got the first shot of the third. Or that teammates fed him for back-to-back dunks to help spark a run of five consecutive scoring possessions early in the second half.

After Ayton finished last Friday’s win on the bench, the 7-foot center bounced back with 15 points and eight rebounds against the Grizzlies on Sunday as the Lakers made a point to involve the big man early.

Ayton scored just four points with six rebounds during Friday’s win and watched a tight fourth quarter from the bench because, as coach JJ Redick said, backup Jaxson Hayes “was playing better.” Redick said Saturday that Ayton was “frustrated” he wasn’t getting the ball more in recent games, and his disillusionment showed up on the court.

“It’s a tale as old as time for a big guy,” Redick said after Sunday’s game. “That’s the reality of being a big: someone has to pass you the ball. You’re not initiating the offense.”

Redick said the team identified moments where teammates could have been better at finding the former No. 1 overall pick. There were also other times when Ayton could have been more active on his own. Redick said he mostly wanted to see Ayton being active, engaged and assertive in the game.

Ayton responded by converting six of his eight shots Sunday and helping the team lock down on defense in the fourth. The Lakers clawed back from an 11-point deficit late in the third and held the Grizzlies (15-19) to just 16 points in the first 10 minutes of the fourth quarter. Ayton had two blocks in the fourth quarter.

“We’re winning the right way,” Ayton said. “Bigs can’t feed themselves and I just try my best to do what I can to bring effort. And I trust my playmakers out there to find me.”

The Lakers had 30 assists on 38 made shots, their highest percentage of assisted field goals of the season.

They met two days prior to Sunday night’s encounter at Crypto.com Arena, a two-game set between the Lakers and Memphis Grizzlies reminiscent of a playoff series.

The Lakers won the first game Friday night and knew the Grizzlies were going to bring more intensity and a stronger effort even with star guard Ja Morant (right calf contusion) not playing.

And that was the case, the Lakers falling behind by 16 points in the second quarter, the Grizzlies ramping it up in a big way. But with Luka Doncic, LeBron James and Jake LaRavia leading the way, the Lakers pulled out a 120-114 win.

Doncic almost had a triple-double with 36 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. James had 26 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds. LaRavia, starting in the absence of Rui Hachimura, had 26 points, five rebounds and four assists. It was the second straight time LaRavia, who came in averaging 9.1 points, scored 20-plus.

A back-and-forth game featured several lead changes in the fourth quarter, with the Lakers and Grizzlies taking turns delivering in tense moments. The Lakers finally took the lead for good at 100-99 on a basket by Doncic.

Then James scored on a three-point play and made one of two free throws for a 104-99 lead with 3 minutes 49 seconds left.

The Lakers (22-11) had an answer for every Grizzlies counter, the final stamp on the game being Doncic’s back-to-back three-pointers for a nine-point lead with 2:01 left.

The NBA scheduling the Lakers to host the Grizzlies on Friday and again Sunday was not an issue for coach JJ Redick.

“I like it,” Redick said. “I do think it does replicate [the playoffs] in some ways. A playoff series, particularly when it’s not a home-and-away situation, but more of you’re playing a two-game series on somebody’s home court for the day in between. Had a few of these last year. So, I like this for our team and it’s a good growth opportunity. Coming off a win, knowing that there’s a lot of stuff that we can be better at and where can we make improvements. That’s the big challenge to me.”

For Redick, that meant what it always does for the Lakers — improving on defense.

Redick wanted his team to get back on defense faster and not let the Grizzlies (15-20) get so many early offense opportunities.

LeBron James shoots against Christian Koloko of the Grizzlies in the first quarter Sunday.

(Katelyn Mulcahy / Getty Images)

The Lakers also wanted to jump-start center Deandre Ayton from a five-game slumber.

Ayton had just four points on two-for-four shooting against the Grizzlies on Friday night and hadn’t scored more than 12 points in that span.

So, the Lakers went to Ayton at the outset, trying to ignite his game. It worked to a degree, Ayton scoring 15 points, grabbing eight rebounds and blocking three shots.

The scouting report was clear. The Pistons (25-8) were second in the league in points in the paint. They were third in points off turnovers and third in turnovers forced.

The Lakers played directly into Detroit’s hands.

Detroit scored 74 points in the paint, the most allowed by the Lakers all season, and capitalized on 21 Lakers turnovers for 30 points. Entering the game, the Pistons’ 58.1 points in the paint per game were only narrowly behind Oklahoma City’s league-leading 58.2.

“We’ve got to definitely match their physicality,” said Luka Doncic, who led the Lakers with 30 points and 11 assists, but had eight turnovers, which is tied for his second-most in a game this season. “That’s the whole point. We got to match how they play.”

Last week, the Lakers faced Phoenix and Houston, two teams with similar styles to Detroit. The Suns averaged 59 paint points in their two wins over the Lakers in December compared to 44 in the Lakers’ Dec. 14 win. The Rockets poured in 68 paint points on Christmas Day.

The Pistons made more shots in the paint (37) than the Lakers attempted (34) and kept their shooting percentage sky-high when three-pointers started to fall. Detroit, which had been shooting 34.7% from three this season, made 11 of 24 (45.8%) from beyond the arc Tuesday.

“We had a game plan,” James said as the Lakers allowed a season-high 63.2% shooting from the field. “We understand that they’re probably No. 1 in points in the paint in the NBA. They get a lot of their points off fast breaks and in the paint. So we knew we’d try to make them miss from the outside and they made some tonight and that’s OK.”

Marcus Sasser hit four of six from three, all in the second half, to finish with 19 points off the bench. Cade Cunningham starred for the Pistons with 27 points and 11 assists.

As Lakers coach JJ Redick talked after practice Monday about the long list of players who would be listed as day-to-day for Tuesday night’s game at Phoenix, he at least knew that center Deandre Ayton will be back after missing two games because of left elbow soreness.

Redick said Luka Doncic (left leg contusion), Austin Reaves (mild left calf strain) and Rui Hachimura (right groin soreness) are day-to-day. Gabe Vincent (lower back tightness), however, is expected to be out longer.

Redick said Doncic was injured when he was kneed by Clippers guard Bagdan Bogdanovic during Saturday night’s loss at Intuit Dome.
Redick said the Lakers have noticed that Doncic, who leads the NBA in scoring (34.1) and is fourth in assists (8.8), gets hit in his lower leg a lot during games.

“It could just be the de-ce. I don’t know,” Redick said, alluding to the way Doncic decelerates with the ball in his hands. “The way he uses his body? I don’t know. … We’re talking about looking into ways to potentially protect against these, so sort of like, collisions.”

Reaves, who’s 10th in scoring at 27.8 points, missed the last three games. He was on the court shooting after practice Monday, and Redick was asked what it will take for his guard to get back in games.

“Given the nature of that area, I think it’s when he feels 100% confident and he doesn’t feel it hurting,” Redick said. “It’s fun, guys. It’s fun. It’s fun. It’s a fun day to talk about injuries.”

Redick said there was no real update on Hachimura’s injury, but that Ayton was a full participant in practice.

Ayton, who is second in the NBA in field-goal percentage (71%) and is averaging 15.3 points and 9.0 rebounds, was asked if he was playing against his former team the Suns. He averaged 16 points and 11 rebounds in the first two matchups.

“Most definitely,” he said. “I’m straight. Most definitely.”