On Halloween night of 2025, a couple of key players returned to play for the Los Angeles Lakers in their opening game in the 2025 NBA Cup tournament. Firstly, Luka Doncic was back on the floor after missing three games due to a finger injury and some leg soreness. The Lakers went 2-1 in his absence as Austin Reaves picked up the slack for the MVP hopeful from Slovenia. Also, Marcus Smart was back as he was making his homecoming return to Beale Street with the Purple & Gold taking on the Memphis Grizzlies at the FedEx Forum, also known as the Grindhouse. Smart played for two seasons in Memphis before being traded to the Washington Wizards. The Lakers looked to get off to a good start in the NBA Cup Tournament presented by Emirates. They won the first ever in-season tournament in Dec 2023 by defeating the Indiana Pacers in the championship game in Las Vegas, Nev. Last season, the most successful sports franchise west of the continental divide failed to make it out of group play in the NBA Cup. It has been a mixed bag of results in this in-season tournament for the first two seasons of it for the team that plays its home games in downtown Los Angeles.

The Grizzlies had the same record as the Lakers heading into this game at 3-2. Under a head coach that took over near the end of last season, Memphis is looking to make the best of the prime years of Ja Morant’s career and build a solid contending roster around him. Other key players on the ursine team in Tennessee include Jaren Jackson Jr, Jalen Wells, Cam Spencer, and honored member of the 2020 NBA championship roster for the Lakers Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, whom was acquired when Desmond Bane was traded to the Orlando Magic. The game started with an early scoring run by the Grizz, but then was countered by some points scored by Doncic and a three-pointer made by Jake LaRavia. The first quarter was close and tight, with the Lakers taking the lead on an amazing three-point shot made by Luka. The lead was 31-27 in favor of the Purple & Gold through one quarter of action.

The second quarter saw the Lakers hold an eight-point lead, but after a timeout by Memphis the home team started going on an offensive surge. A 29-6 Grizzlies run took place for six and a half minutes, with big scores by a variety of players on the floor. Up by 15 points, Memphis was going to have a big lead at halftime. With little resistance from the Purple & Gold, the lead for the Grizzlies was 14 at the half. Outscored by a tally of 42-24 in the second quarter, the Lakers needed to find a way to dig out of this “grave” in the second half. Doncic was at least scoring some points and some contributions from his teammates would go a far way in determining the outcome of this game.

Strangely enough, the starting center for Los Angeles in DeAndre Ayton was not available for the second half due to back spasms, so Jaxson Hayes was going to have to step up in Ayton’s place. A couple of made three-pointers started out the half strong for the Lakers, but they still had to overcome a double-digit margin that was staring them in the face. Another good three-pointer by Rui Hachimura lowered the deficit to eight points with a couple of fouls sending Reaves and Doncic to the free-throw line. After some made foul shots, the margin was down to four and Luka made a couple of clutch three-pointers to tie the game. Doncic then had a good alley-oop assist to Hayes to give the Lakers their first lead of the second half. The lead then seesawed between both teams for a few minutes, with the Grizzlies holding a two-point lead at the end of the third quarter. But the Purple & Gold had some momentum going their way with a made transition shot by Dalton Knecht to end the quarter on a high note in scoring 34 points while holding Memphis to 22 points. The fourth quarter was a golden chance for the Lakers to take command in this game.

The quarter started with a Reaves pull up jumper that tied the game up at 91, with a layup by LaRavia giving the Lakers the lead back. Following an early timeout in the quarter by the Grizzlies, L.A took full control with big shots made by Reaves and Doncic along with others. A big three-pointer by Hachimura forced another timeout by Tuomas Iisalo, and then Luka made a huge three that pushed the lead up to double digits. A couple of short shots kept the lead over ten points and the lead stayed well out of Memphis’ reach for the rest of regulation. The Lakers won by five points, and the margin could have been higher. But a 117-112 win on Halloween night had the Purple & Gold off to a good start in NBA Cup group play. Point margin actually matters when it comes to tiebreakers in the group standings and determining who makes it to the knockout stage. But a 1-0 start in West Group B along with the Los Angeles Clippers, who had a narrow two-point home win over the New Orleans Pelicans, is a good thing for the Lakers.

The main headline of the game was Luka Doncic’s return onto the court and he scored 44 points and had 12 rebounds along with six assists. Shooting 14-27 from the floor and making six three-pointers, Doncic joined Wilt Chamberlain as the only players to have at least three consecutive forty-plus point performances to start out a regular season. Doncic was aided by Austin Reaves, who scored 21 points and made 9 free throws and Jake LaRavia, who scored 13 points off the bench. A nine-player rotation worked wonders again for the Purple & Gold, who are still awaiting the return of LeBron James from a sciatica issue. The Lakers also did well defensively in containing Ja Morant, who scored only eight points for the entire game while dishing out seven assists. A combined team effort from Jock Landale, Jaylen Wells, Jaren Jackson Jr, Cedric Coward, Cam Spencer and KCP was not enough for the Grizzlies against the Lakers. At 4-2 the next game for the Purple & Gold will be a Sunday night matchup at home against the Miami Heat followed by a back-to-back on the road against the Portland Trail Blazers the next night. The next NBA Cup game for Los Angeles will be a road game against the New Orleans Pelicans on Fri, Nov 14. The latter two group games for the Lakers will happen at Crypto.com Arena during Thanksgiving week against the Clippers and Dallas Mavericks. If they have a good enough record and scoring margin to win the group(or sneak in as one of the two non-Group winning teams with the best scoring margins), the Lakers will advance to the quarterfinals round of the NBA Cup. If they win a quarterfinal matchup, the Purple & Gold will head to Las Vegas to compete in a Final Four-like setting at T-Mobile Arena, which will host the semifinals and championship matchup of the NBA Cup on Sat, Dec 13 and Tue, Dec 16 respectively. We shall see how this NBA Cup goes and whether the Lakers stand to have a chance to win another in-season tournament title.