Lakers light it up from downtown

With a dizzying flurry of long-range shots, the Los Angeles Lakers made Memphis look lost on defense on Tuesday night.

Nick Young scored 20 points, D’Angelo Russell added 18 and both keyed an early barrage of 3-pointers that sent the Lakers past the Grizzlies 116-102 on Tuesday night.

The Lakers made a season-high 17 3-pointers, all but one coming in the first three quarters. They finished 17 of 33 from beyond the arc despite missing nine consecutive attempts in the final period.

Young and Russell each connected on six 3s, and five Lakers hit at least one.

“When shooters get hot, a goodoffenseisgoingtobeat a good defense,” Los Angeles coach Luke Walton said.

All that outside shooting opened things up inside for forward Julius Randle, who finished with a triple-double: 19 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists.

The Lakers had 34 assists, outrebounded the Grizzlies 43-39 and held them to 39 percent shooting while winning for only the third time in 18 games.

“We had our LA cool jacket on tonight,” Memphis coach David Fizdale said. “I don’t know who we were performing for, but it wasn’t for each other.

“We show signs of greatness and then we are just zombies out there. Tonight was one of those nights.”

Marc Gasol led the Grizzlies with 22 points, seven assists and six rebounds. Mike Conley had 21 points.

For Randle, it was his third career triple-double. The 11 assists were a career best.

Walton said he got on Randle at practice on Monday about his inconsistency and later called him at home to see if he was still mad at him.

“I think he can be great and I’m going to continue to hold him to high standards,” Walton said. “He obviously responded pretty well and gave us a nice effort.”

The Grizzlies have one of the NBA’s top defenses. They are tied with Utah for allowing the lowest field goal percentage in the league, and are second to the Jazz in points allowed (97.6 per game).

“We didn’t play with great effort, not to mention detail,” Fizdale said.

“We looked silly out there guarding basic NBA sets. Stuff we run at each other every day, we couldn’t even guard. For whatever reason, we just weren’t there.”

The Lakers had lost 15 of 17, a tough grind for a young team that won only 17 games last season and 21 the previous season.

“I think you have guys who want to get better and are tired of losing,” Walton said. “It’s been a rough couple of years.”