5 things the Lakers must do to complete an upset of the Grizzlies

Thing #2: Take care of the basketball

Not to sugarcoat anything, we could be stuck in the mud watching the halfcourt offense of both the Lakers and the Grizzlies. Emphasis on pushing the pace and winning the transition aspect should be their main focus to generate optimal scoring opportunities. So it’s a must to control your turnovers if you’re the Lakers.

It was emphasized earlier that LeBron James has been one of the deadliest players in transition, but the opposition also has Ja Morant. The thing is, it doesn’t end with Morant himself, as the whole Grizzlies make it a point to feed off points in the fastbreak.

In their three games in the regular season, the Lakers had an average of 16 turnovers. There’s also another distinction between these turnovers: if it’s a live ball one or a giveaway, a team can prepare a set defense. The big no-no for this series is letting the Grizzlies run off of live ball turnovers.
In a numbers perspective, the Grizzlies have the third most opportunities garnered in transition, and they score the second most points out of them (25.7 points per game). An extensive analysis isn’t much needed in this part, but it just says a lot about how these turnovers jumpstart a middling halfcourt offensive team.