Lakers snap Grizzlies' win streak as Sharpe beefs with Morants

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lakers coach Darvin Ham had seen his squad on the wrong end of close losses for the past week.

On Friday night, Ham saw his team's mettle and resolve pay off.

Dennis Schröder completed a three-point play with 7.6 seconds after a steal, and Los Angeles rallied past Memphis 122-121 to snap the Grizzlies' winning streak at 11 games.

“To get a win like this is a momentum swing,” Ham said. “The guys were kind of down after the Sacramento game, but we addressed areas that we needed to get better. There’s no way we win this game if we didn’t have the type of fight that we had.”

The Lakers had lost their last three games by a total of 10 points. They trailed 114-107 with 3:04 remaining before outscoring the Grizzlies 15-7 the rest of the way.

Schröder stole the ball from Desmond Bane near halfcourt and made a layup while being fouled by Bane to tie it at 120. Schröder then hit a free throw for the lead.

“We wanted to trap first before we fouled,” said Schröder, who scored 19 points. “I saw Bane catch the ball, he had his back to me and I made a play. I got the steal, pushed the ball, got fouled and finished the play.”

After a timeout, Memphis' Brandon Clarke was fouled with 1.9 seconds remaining. He made the first free throw, but missed the second. Bane got the offensive rebound but lost control of it, giving the Lakers possession with 0.4 seconds left.

Russell Westbrook led the Lakers with 29 points and LeBron James added 23. It was only the second time this season Los Angeles won when trailing after three quarters.

The Lakers were outrebounded 63-47, but had a 20-4 edge in fast-break points.

“We were resilient the whole game,” James said. “We stuck with the game plan. We've given ourselves a chance to win games.”

Former Crestwood star Ja Morant led Memphis with 22 points. Clarke and Tyus Jones added 20 apiece, and Steven Adams had 16 points and 17 rebounds.

One significant reason for the Grizzlies' loss was free throws. They were 26 of 40 from the line, the ninth time this season they shot 65% or worse.

“They outcompeted us for 48 minutes. Plain and simple. Terrible effort,” Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins said.

Morant missed his first five shots and was 2 of 10 with six points in the first half before he had a heated courtside conversation with Shannon Sharpe — the Pro Football Hall of Famer and Fox Sports personality — before halftime.

Morant had 14 points in the third quarter and the Grizzlies held a 13-point lead late in the period.

“We gave up too many second-chance points. Just have to win the 50-50 plays,” Morant said. “We've got a lot of good, but a lot of cleaning up to do.”

SHARPE VS. MORANTS

Hall of Fame football player Shannon Sharpe had a heated courtside conversation with Memphis Grizzlies players Ja Morant and Dillon Brooks and Morant’s father at the end of the first half Friday night in a nationally televised game against the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Fox Sports personality exchanged words with Brooks throughout the first half and then yelled at Morant on the final possession of the second quarter. After the halftime buzzer sounded, Brooks yelled at Sharpe and Sharpe motioned toward Brooks.

Morant walked toward Sharpe at his courtside seat before center Steven Adams stepped in front of him.

Tee Morant, Ja Morant's father, also got involved in the conversation before security at Crypto.com arena separated everyone.

Sharpe, 54, yelled “I bet you won’t!” at Tee Morant as security guards tried to break things up.

Brooks initially did not want to comment, saying: “You can ask him about that. He’s the blogger or whatever he is,” before addressing it a little later.

Morant and Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins refused to discuss the incident after the Lakers rallied for a 122-121 victory and snapped Memphis' 11-game winning streak

Sharpe told an ESPN reporter at halftime that he was reacting to the Grizzlies' chatter.

“They do all that talking and jockeying and I ain’t about that jockeying,” Sharpe said. "It started with Dillon Brooks. I said he was too small to guard LeBron.”

The former tight end said Brooks then swore at him, and he swore back. Brooks said that wasn't the case and that he told Sharpe that James missed the shot.

“He started to come at me and I said, ‘You don’t want these problems.’ And then Ja came out of nowhere talking. He definitely didn’t want these problems. Then the dad came and he obviously didn’t want no problems. But I wanted anything they had. Don’t let these fools fool you now.”

Sharpe and Tee Morant talked to security in the tunnels at the arena before returning to their seats when the second half started. They hugged at the end of the third quarter.

Brooks was asked whether Sharpe or any fans should be allowed to return to their seats after getting into an argument with a player?

“A regular pedestrian like him? No. He should have never come back into the game, but it's LA," Brooks said.

TIP-INS

Grizzlies: Memphis pulled down a season-high 24 offensive rebounds. ... Clarke also had 10 rebounds. ... Bane scored 16 points and Jaren Jackson Jr. added 12. ... Adams had seven rebounds in the first quarter, the fifth time this season he has had seven or more in the first.

Lakers: Troy Brown Jr. and Kendrick Nunn scored 11 points apiece and Troy Brown Jr. had 10. ... LA blocked five shots in the first quarter. ... Los Angeles scored 41 points in the fourth quarter and has scored at least 40 in four quarters this season.

UP NEXT

Grizzlies: At Phoenix on Sunday night.

Lakers: At Portland on Sunday night.