No Ja Morant, no problem as Grizzlies tie up Lakers at 1-1

MEMPHIS,Tenn. (AP) — Xavier Tillman scored a career-high 22 points and had13 rebounds, and the Memphis Grizzlies tied theirfirst-roundWestern Conference seriesat 1-1 Wednesday night bybeating the Los Angeles Lakers 103-93 withAll-Starguard Ja Morant sidelined by an injured hand.

No. 2 seedMemphis sat Morant after he tested the right hand originally hurtApril 7 in a win at Milwaukee and aggravated driving to the basketin the opening loss to the Lakers. He had more exams on the handbefore being declared inactive and watched from the bench with hishand bandaged.

Morant’steammates more than made up for his absence. The Grizzlies led byas much as 20 and had fans waving their towels chanting “Whoop ThatTrick” with 30 seconds left with this series guaranteed a return toMemphis for Game 5. The Grizzlies were able to dribble out thefinal seconds for the win.

Jaren JacksonJr., the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year, scored 18 points forMemphis. Desmond Bane had 17, while Tyus Jones had 10 points andeight assists filling in for Morant. Dillon Brooks added 12 pointsand Luke Kennard had 13.

LeBron Jamesled the Lakers with 28 points and 12 rebounds. Reserve RuiHachimura had another strong performance with 20 points. AnthonyDavis struggled mightily after posting a double-double in theopener, going 4 of 14 and finishing with 13 points and eightrebounds.

The Lakers,winners of 11 of their previous 13, had afour-gamewinning streaksnapped. Now they head home for Game 3 onSaturday night after never leading by more than three, and thatcame on the first points of the game.

Memphis tookcontrol in the first quarter with a 22-8 run, withback to-back 3s in the span of10 secondsfrom rookie David Roddy, then Kennard, who alsodrew a foul for a four-point play.

WithBane scoring 10points,Memphis led 30-19 after the first. Jackson madehis first 3 with 58 seconds left, and the Grizzlies went into thehalf up 59-44 after outscoring the Lakers 29-25 in the second.

Hachimurascored 11 in the third and helped the Lakers trim a Memphis leadthat reached 66-46 to 73-67. The Grizzlies finished the quarter ona 10-4 run to push the lead to 83-71 going into the fourth.

The Lakersnever got closer than 94-88 in the final quarter on a James’ layupwith 3:10 remaining. Memphis scored five straight to push it backto double digits.

TIP-INS

Lakers: Theywound up outrebounded 49-47, though they matched Memphis’ scoringin the paint at 50 apiece despite being outscored there 38-20 inthe first half. ... Austin Reaves had 12 points after having 23 inthe opener. He was 5 of 12 in this game. ... D’Angelo Russell hadfive points, shooting 5 of 11 after having 19 in Game 1.

Grizzlies:Jackson was presented his trophy as theNBADefensive Player of the Year beforetipoff. ... Injuriesnow have kept Morant out of four of the Grizzlies’ last fiveplayoff games, dating back to last year’s conferencesemifinals.

X FACTOR

Tillman hadmore points in the first quarter than he managed in all of theopening loss. He made his first six shots before missing hisseventh, a 3 trying to beat the buzzer that hit off the right rim.He finished with a season high in rebounds.

Reserve JohnKonchar had his moment too,going way up to block allball on a shot by Davisin the second quarter.