Players Grades: Lakers vs. Grizzlies

The Lakers continued their domination of the Grizzlies with their biggest win and best performance of the young season on Tuesday, mauling Memphis 134-107. It was their first meeting since eliminating the Grizzlies in the playoffs and while the visitors were severely hampered by injuries, the win counts all the same.

Most notably, it was a historic performance from the Lakers as they tied a franchise record in made 3-pointers and continued a tradition of clowning the Grizzlies while doing so.

Let’s grade the win. Grades are based on expectations for each player. A “B” grade represents the average performance for that player.

Cam Reddish

25 minutes, 10 points, 2 assists, 1 rebound, 3-7 FG, 3-5 3PT, 1-2 FT, +16

Cam Reddish with confidence from LeBron James may just be Kyle Korver with athleticism now. Over the last three games, he’s 9-16 from the 3-pt line after starting the year 2-16 from the arc.

Is this sustainable? Probably not. But it’s been fun for now.

Grade: B+

LeBron James

23 minutes, 16 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 steal, 6-11 FG, 3-6 3PT, 1-2 FT, +15

LeBron didn’t really need to get out of first gear in this one, but that’s not to say he didn’t have a part in this win. He set the tone early with his 3-point shooting and still played hard.

These stat lines from LeBron are what the Lakers should be aiming for moving forward this season. Low minutes, efficient production, blowout win.

Grade: B+

Anthony Davis

27 minutes, 19 points, 11 rebounds, 6 blocks, 5 assists, 7-11 FG, 5-6 FT, +21

AD claims he doesn’t play any harder going up against the reigning Defensive Player of the Year. I’m not sure I believe him, but it doesn’t matter his motivation. He has thoroughly and completely outplayed Jaren Jackson Jr. in every recent meeting.

Is JJJ still a fantastic player? Yes. Does him having a DPOY award and AD being trophy-less look sillier and sillier each time they play? Also yes.

Grade: A

Taurean Prince

29 minutes, 8 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 3-6 FG, 2-5 3PT, +9

A fairly ho-hum game from Taurean Prince. He was perfectly serviceable but didn’t jump off the screen all that much.

But if Prince is going to keep his vow of shooting 40% from the 3-point line, he’s going to need to have a big run as he’s now shooting 32.5% on the season through nine games.

Grade: C

D’Angelo Russell

27 minutes, 24 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds, 8-12 FG, 6-8 3PT, 2-3 FT, +25

Is there an In-Season Tournament All-Tournament team? Is D’Lo gunning for that? Regardless of his motivation, he was a game-high +25 and exploded in the third quarter to put this game to rest.

Russell has probably been the Lakers third best player this season and he’s doing it in a number of ways, not just through his shooting

Grade: A

Austin Reaves

29 minutes, 16 points, 12 rebounds, 7 assists, 5-9 FG, 4-4 3PT, 2-3 FT, +13

While his move to the bench may have been jarring for everyone else, Reaves hasn’t missed a beat. One thing to monitor moving forward is that, since moving to the bench, Reaves’ assists have gone up and his turnovers have gone down.

Grade: B+

Rui Hachimura

24 minutes, 23 points, 3 rebounds, 8-10 FG, 3-3 3PT, 4-4 FT, +6

This is a very Rui stat line, doing very little more than scoring on the night. But if he’s doing it that efficiently, you can’t complain.

And regardless of what the stats show, Rui has been fantastic since returning from injury and continues to play at a high level.

Grade: A

Christian Wood

22 minutes, 2 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block, 1-8 FG, 0-3 3PT, +9

This was another night when Christian Wood’s shot struggled. However, on Tuesday, Wood found other ways to contribute, which he hasn’t always done either this season or in his career.

He still grabbed 10 boards, helped the Lakers win the rebounding battle and was still impactful in the win.

Grade: B

Jaxson Hayes

21 minutes, 11 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 steal, 3 blocks, 4-4 FG, 3-4 FT, +6

While my initial thought writing out that stat line is how does someone with Jaxson Hayes’ physical gifts end the game with one rebound, that should probably be a secondary takeaway. Tuesday was safely and easily the best game of the season from Hayes on both ends of the court.

Grade: B+

Max Christie

9 minutes, 5 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 steal, 2-2 FG, 1-1 3PT, +10

Christie was able to get into the game and contribute to the record-breaking night in garbage time. It’s safe to say at this point in the year, Christie isn’t ready for big rotation minutes in competitive games, which makes nights like this more important for him.

Grade: B

Maxwell Lewis

5 minutes, 0-1 FG, +5

Not much to take from this one other than Lewis getting some NBA minutes. He didn’t do much good or bad on the floor. It’s hard to even give him a grade on this one, so I won’t.

Grade: Incomplete

Darvin Ham

Kudos to Darvin who, very recently, said he wasn’t worried about the team’s slow start shooting the ball because they were getting good looks. And he was right.

One other note: early in his career, Darvin struggled with timeout usage and admitted as much after a memorable loss to the Celtics. It’s been an area he has drastically improved upon, whether it’s saving them for the fourth quarter in competitive games to allow LeBron to rest or, on Tuesday, using them to stop a run before it may happen.

Grade: A-

Friday’s inactive: Jalen Hood-Schifino, Jarred Vanderbilt, Gabe Vincent, Colin Castleton. D’Moi Hodge, Alex Fudge

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.