After cruising to a comfortable victory Saturday, the Lakers have a chance to push the Grizzlies to the brink of elimination tonight in Los Angeles.

Despite getting Ja Morant back from his hand injury, L.A. won Game 3, 111–10. But that 10-point difference obscured how much of a blowout it really was. Memphis managed only a pathetic nine points in the first quarter and never recovered. Outside of Morant (who put up an otherworldly 45 points, 13 assists and nine rebounds), Memphis’s other players were disappointingly quiet.

No one was quieter than the Grizzlies’ biggest loudmouth, Dillon Brooks, who basically called LeBron James washed up after Game 2. Brooks scored seven points on 3-of-13 shooting and was ejected after hitting James in the groin. (Brooks reportedly won’t be suspended.)

“[A]fter constant trash talking of their opponent, the Grizzlies should be embarrassed by the wire-to-wire beatdown they took in Game 3,” Rohan Nadkarni wrote after the game. And it isn’t just Brooks who’s been running his mouth, Nadkarni points out. Desmond Bane dismissed Rui Hachimura’s 29 points in the Lakers’ Game 1 win as a fluke. (For what it’s worth, Hachimura followed that game up with an efficient 36 points on 13-of-22 shooting over Games 2 and 3.)

The Grizzlies have been approaching this series as if it were a typical 7 vs. 2 matchup, dismissing the Lakers at every turn. But a team led by LeBron James isn’t your typical 7-seed. Memphis needs to start playing like the team it thinks it is and come up with a win tonight to even the series.

Around the rest of the league

The Bucks are another team in serious trouble, already down 2–1 before tonight’s Game 4 in Miami and with Giannis Antetokounmpo still dealing with a back injury. The Heat have their own injury concerns after Victor Oladipo tore his patellar tendon in Game 3, but his absence is obviously not as significant as Milwaukee’s former MVP’s. The Bucks aren’t completely helpless without Antetokounmpo, though. Even with him sidelined in Game 2, their offense exploded in a 138–122 victory that saw seven players score in double figures. The problem is consistency. After shooting .535 as a team in Game 2, the Bucks shot just .447 as they scored 99 points in their Game 3 loss. Which version of the potentially Giannis-less Bucks will show up tonight?

One guy who’s establishing himself as one of the most dependable playoff performers in the league is Knicks guard Jalen Brunson. He put up 29 points yesterday afternoon as the Knicks beat the Cavaliers to take a 3–1 lead in that series. As Chris Herring wrote after Game 3, the Knicks are being buoyed by their boisterous home crowd, and thanks to Brunson, they’re guaranteed to play at least one more game at MSG (whether that’s in Game 6 or in the second round).

Finally, the Warriors-Kings series sure looks like it’ll go seven games. At least I hope it does. It’s been the best of all the first-round series, with two games now having come down to the final possession. After Harrison Barnes’s three-point attempt at the buzzer yesterday went begging, the series is tied at two games apiece. Game 5 is Wednesday night in Sacramento, and while it has to be nerve wracking for the Kings to have this turn into a best-of-three series, the Warriors still have to prove they’re capable of winning away from home if they’re going to advance.

The best of Sports Illustrated

In today’s Daily Cover story, Howard Megdal examines whether the Liberty’s newly assembled superteam can actually live up to the hype.
Albert Breer kicks off NFL draft week with detailed needs and pick predictions for every team.
Greg Bishop spoke with two players described as “generational talents”—Will Anderson Jr. and Bijan Robinson—about their similar paths to the NFL.
Chris Mannix breaks down the surprisingly one-sided Gervonta Davis–Ryan Garcia fight.
Davis moved into the top 10 of Mannix’s pound-for-pound rankings after his win.
Garcia claims he had a “mole” in his camp before the fight.
Hawks guard Dejounte Murray could be hearing from the league after a video showed him bumping into an official.
Jalen Rose took Phil Jackson to task after the legendary coach’s comments about social justice.

The top five...

… things I saw yesterday:

5. Josh Hart singing “Don’t Stop Believin’” on the bench during the Knicks’ win.

4. Back-to-back-to-back home runs for Taylor Ward, Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani.

3. Jack Campbell’s sprawling save to keep the Oilers in the game late in the third period. (Zach Hyman scored the winner for Edmonton in overtime to tie the series 2–2.)

2. Twins minor leaguer Ryan LaMarre’s heads-up baserunning to score on a foul pop-up.

1. Two home runs in one inning for Red Sox outfielder Masataka Yoshida.

SIQ

NFL owners voted to award an expansion franchise to Tampa Bay on this day in 1974 and two months later approved adding a team in Seattle. Which of the following cities was not a finalist for an expansion team when the league added its 27th and 28th teams?

Honolulu
Memphis
Phoenix
Charlotte

Friday’s SIQ: On April 21, 1990, a National League umpire was arrested for stealing what from a Target in California?

Watches
CD players
Candy bars
Baseball cards

Answer: Baseball cards. Bob Engel, who had been an MLB umpire since 1965, was arrested on misdemeanor burglary charges after he stole seven boxes containing 4,180 Score baseball cards from a Target in Bakersfield, Calif. According to police, Engel put the boxes, valued at $143.98, in a paper bag that he pulled from the waistband of his pants. He was suspended by the NL after his arrest.

Engel, who was the subject of a short Sports Illustrated profile in 1987, was later charged with a second misdemeanor for attempting to steal 50 packs of cards from a Costco four months earlier. Engel pleaded no contest to the charges and was sentenced to three years of probation and 40 hours of community service and ordered to seek counseling. Through counseling, Engel realized “that a family difficulty four or five years ago had contributed to the problem,” he said.

Engel retired from umpiring after he was sentenced.

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