Superstar LeBron James became just the fifth player in NBA history to reach 100 triple-doubles for his career, but his feat was marred by the Los Angeles Lakers’ 108-95 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Thursday.
The four-time NBA champion put up 20 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists at the FedExForum as the Lakers dropped to a 13-13 record and seventh place in the Western Conference.
James joins his fellow Lakers teammate Russell Westbrook in the top five of all-time regular season triple-double leaders, with Westbrook sitting comfortably in first place with 189.
The Lakers’ season has been blighted by inconsistency as the new ‘Big Three’ of James, Westbrook and Anthony Davis continue to struggle meshing together on the court.
Davis put up 22 points, eight rebounds and one assist on Thursday, but it was another tough night for Westbrook, who recorded just nine points, seven assists and six rebounds, while also recording six turnovers.
“Turnovers killed us,” said James, who had five himself. ”Defensively, I thought we were really good. We just turned the ball over.
”When you hold a team to 108 points and 27 of those came off turnovers, the defense was really good. Offensively, we were not good at all.”
The Grizzlies were able to pull off the emphatic win without star guard Ja Morant, who remains sidelined in the NBA’s Covid-19 health and safety protocols, as well as key defensive piece Dillon Brooks, who was also placed into the league’s health and safety protocols just before tip off.
Jaren Jackson Jr. and Desmond Bane stepped up for Memphis in their absence, recording 25 and 23 points respectively.
”I didn’t know what we were going to look like,” Bane said of the last-minute line up change, reported on NBA.com.
”One thing I did know was that we were going to fight, regardless. Before the game started, I told everybody to have fun. Just do what we do and have fun playing the game.”
Memphis has now won six of its past seven games to move to 15-11 for the season and climb to fourth in Western Conference standings.