Former Lakers guard looks forward to “revenge” game against LA

The Los Angeles Lakers play the Memphis Grizzlies for the second time this season on Wednesday. LA lost its first meeting on the road against the Grizzlies last week.

The Lakers ran out of the gym and lost that battle 131-114.

LA was in the thick of things in the first half, but things spiraled out of control in the second half, largely due to the play of former Lakers guard Scotty Pippen Jr.

Pippen was exceptional in his 26 minutes of action in this game, scoring 14 points on 55 percent shooting from the field, six rebounds, four assists, one block and one steal.

Pippen took the match personally and that is no different as he will face his former team on Wednesday.

Pippen said Mark Medina of Sportskeeda that he is looking forward to playing against LA and that this match is “circled on his calendar”.

“I definitely have it marked on the calendar. But I’m going to approach it the same way I would any other game. I’m going to play hard and let the game go.”

Pippen signed with the Lakers as an undrafted free agent and appeared in six games during the 2023-23 season. He started the 2023–24 season with the team’s G League team, the South Bay Lakers.

However, Pippen signed a two-way contract with the Grizzlies in January and ultimately signed a four-year contract with the team in October.

Pippen is showing that he is an NBA-caliber player, and he says the main reason for that is his clarity, something he didn’t do with the Lakers.

“I didn’t really know what they wanted from me and what they expected from me,” Pippen said. “When I left there I felt like they didn’t want me there and that I had no future there. I couldn’t really discuss much about why I wasn’t there.”

The 24-year-old was impressive, averaging 12.1 points and 6.5 assists and shooting 52.1 percent from the field and 43.8 percent from three-point range.

Memphis will be without its superstar Ja Morant for some time, meaning Pippen will be given a bigger leash and LA could have its hands full with the former Laker.

He’ll want to play well in front of the LA fans, and based on what we saw in his last game, he could get hot quickly.

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