Grizzlies Push Lakers Closer to Bitter End

Jerry West looked down from a suite in the upper reaches of FedEx Forum and watched what unfolded below, the continual ticking away of playoff hopes for the team he once built into a champion.

Now the Memphis Grizzlies’ president of basketball operations, West will probably be part of the playoffs, but the Lakers are clinging to only the slightest mathematical chance after a 102-82 loss to the Grizzlies in front of 18,119 on Sunday.

The Lakers (33-40) have lost 11 of 12 and could be eliminated with a loss Tuesday against the Phoenix Suns, the Western Conference’s top team.

The Lakers have nine games left and are 8 1/2 behind the Grizzlies and Denver Nuggets for the West’s final playoff spot. If the Lakers lose and Denver beats Memphis on Tuesday night, the Lakers can start planning for next season.

There’s no reason to believe it won’t happen.

The Lakers never led the Grizzlies and trailed by as many as 27 points. In the end, after Brian Cook and Sasha Vujacic fouled out, they had seven players left. Kobe Bryant left in the second quarter because of a bruised muscle next to his right shin and Brian Grant was ejected earlier in the quarter for shoving Memphis forward Pau Gasol.

West was not available for comment -- it’s not his way to talk publicly about the Lakers -- but Laker Coach Frank Hamblen was willing.

“We’re certainly not going to run the table the rest of the way and the other teams are certainly not going to lose every game so it’s coming, there’s no question,” Hamblen said.

Hamblen probably wasn’t inspired by the game. Or how empty the bench looked. Or how empty the team played, except Caron Butler, who had 18 points and led the team in scoring for the third time in six games.

It was rough from the start.

The Lakers were without center Chris Mihm because of a sprained right ankle and Lamar Odom because of a strained left shoulder, further thinning an already thin frontcourt. Then Grant and Bryant left in the same quarter.

Bryant initially suffered the injury after getting kicked in Saturday’s game against the San Antonio Spurs. He ended the first quarter by unwisely dribbling out the clock without taking a shot and played only two minutes in the second quarter before leaving.

He had nine points in 14 minutes and probably could have played had there been more at stake, Hamblen said.

“He was out there limping around,” Hamblen said. “He’s too valuable a property to take a risk in a game like this. I guess we’ll know more [today].”

Bryant was not available for comment afterward.

Low on big men, Hamblen was asked if assistant Kurt Rambis, 47, would be in the lineup Tuesday.

“I’d like to suit him and [assistant] Brian [Shaw] up,” he said.

They probably could have helped in the first half.

The Lakers made five of 20 shots in the first quarter and trailed, 32-14.

They began the second quarter with a lineup of Vujacic, Tierre Brown, Jumaine Jones, Devean George and Luke Walton, giving new meaning to a small lineup.

It didn’t work.

The Grizzlies built their lead to 40-16 and scored 36 of their first 47 points in the paint, dominating the withered Laker inside game and leading at halftime, 55-32.

“The first half was just embarrassing,” Grant said. “I was a part of that. Everybody was a part of that.”

Chucky Atkins, scoreless in the first half, had 13 points in the second half, and Vujacic finished with a season-high 10 points to make the game mildly interesting. Cook’s three-point shot with 2 minutes 24 seconds left in the third quarter cut the Laker deficit to 71-61.

The Lakers won the second half, 50-47, perhaps the only positive in an otherwise negative night for them.

“Is the CBA still going on, where you get a point for winning a quarter?” Hamblen said. “I’ll probably find out. That’s probably where I’ll be next year.”