The Los Angeles Lakers are officially heading to the playoffs after an overtime win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night. It required a comeback from 15 points down, and an Anthony Davis “brain fart” was the only reason things got to an extra period, but ultimately, the Lakers were able to set up a first round showdown with the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2-7 series.
The Lakers won the season series over the Grizzlies, 2-1, with one of their games making headlines for a kerfuffle between Shannon Sharpe, who was sitting courtside at Crypto.com Arena, and a few Memphis players as they made their way into the locker room at halftime. Basically, the teams know one another pretty well, something that LeBron James hammered home during his postgame media availability before he made clear that he hasn’t “thought about Memphis one minute.”
I asked LeBron for his early thoughts on the Memphis matchup. After listing out his scouting report for most of their rotation, he deadpanned, “Obviously, I haven’t thought about Memphis one minute.” pic.twitter.com/PeUJ4sXJYs
— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) April 12, 2023
“Really good team, very well coached, very well balanced,” James said when asked his thoughts on the Grizzlies.
It was at this point that the future Hall of Fame inductee listed seven separate players on Memphis — Ja Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr., Tyus Jones, Desmond Bane, Dillon Brooks, Xavier Tillman, and Luke Kennard — and said something about them. It could have been a breakdown of their game, a note about something they have accomplished in their basketball playing career (ex: he mentioned that Kennard scored more career points than him while he was a high school student in Ohio), or whatever else popped into his brain as he ran through things.
After doing all of this, he kept a straight face as he told the press, “Obviously, I haven’t thought about Memphis one minute.”