The Lakers will face the Grizzlies in Round 1 of the Western Conference playoffs and someone that will be hard to stop will be Ja Morant, especially on his home court.
That is the task LA is faced with on Sunday night and their shooting guard Austin Reaves spoke about the challenge of guarding such a talented young star.
“Ja is just a really good player,” Reaves said. “Obviously as we’ve seen the last three years or so. There’s different variations we can do and different coverages we can try out, but at the end of the day, he’s a really good player and he’s gonna ultimately get his. So we just gotta limit him, make it hard for him in whatever way we can and it’s really just about us locking in and playing as hard as we can.”
Morant, a two-time All-Star, averaged 26.2 points, 5.9 rebounds and 8.1 assists during the regular season while shooting 46.6 percent from the field, 30.7 percent from beyond the arc and 74.8 percent from the free-throw line.
Before the postseason, the Grizz went 1-2 against the Lakers this season. Of those three games, Morant participated in two and had 22 points in the loss and 39 points in the win.
The home team will be without big man Steven Adams (right knee) and Brandon Clarke (left achilles), while Anthony Davis (right foot stress), LeBron James (right foot soreness) and Dennis Schroder (right achilles soreness) are all listed as probable for the Lakers.
Lakers v Memphis Game 1 in Round 1 of the Western Conference playoffs series will take place on Sunday April 16 at 3:00PM ET at FedExForum.
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