MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Late in the second quarter of the The Lakers’ 131-114 road loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on WednesdayGrizzlies big man Jaren Jackson Jr. grabbed a defensive rebound inside the restricted area under the Lakers basket after Jaxson Hayes’ missed layup attempt.

Jackson immediately fed the ball to teammate Brandon Clarke, who flanked the left sidewith Hayes and LeBron James jogging back while Gabe Vincent, D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves waited in the frontcourt for Memphis’ transition attack to cross half court.

Grizzlies star guard Ja Morant cut down the middle of the floor just yards past half-court, drawing the attention of Vincent, Russell and Hayes, who failed to deflect Clarke’s pass to Morant.

As Russell lost to Morant, Jake LaRavia ran down the right wing with Russell’s back to the Memphis forward. And one second after snapping the ball, Morant quickly passed it from the top of the 3-point arc to LaRavia inside the paint with no Lakers in his reach, converting an uncontested dunk that put the Grizzlies up 52-48.

Reaves was the only Laker inside the paint when LaRavia made the layup, with James just crossing half court, Vincent and Hayes near the 3-point line and Russell several steps behind LaRavia.

While it was only one play, it was one of many examples of a problem that has plagued the Lakers this season: poor transition defense.

The Grizzlies, one of the league’s best transition teams, scored 27 fast-break points against the Lakers, allowing a team-worst 21.5 fastbreak points per game. They allowed at least 21 points in six of the eight games.

Their opponents picked up on that weakness and exploited it during the Lakers’ five-game road trip, in which the Lakers went 1-4 to fall to 4-4 on the season entering Friday’s home game own against the Philadelphia 76ers.

“we’ll have to” Cleveland Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson responded when asked about picking up the pace ahead of the Oct. 30 matchup with the Lakers.. “They are too good in the midfield. They have one of the best rim protectors in the league, excellent perimeter defenders. And they are smart too.

“If we don’t get out in transition, it’s going to be hard to score against them.”

The Cavaliers accomplished their goal, scoring 26 fastbreak points against the Lakers en route to a 134-110 victory. The Lakers have allowed 23 fastbreak points per game since that game.

Transition defense was a talking point for nearly every media availability Lakers coach JJ Redick had during the trip.

Despite that, he got a straight “no” when asked before Wednesday’s game if he felt his team was making progress in transition defense after having several practices and innings on the road.

“It’s concerning because it’s not good,” Reaves said of the team’s transition defense after the loss to the Grizzlies. “It’s eight games now, so it’s not like it’s the end of the world. At the end of the day, it’s up to us to execute that. It sucks because you want to win every game and that’s one of the reasons, along with many others, why we haven’t been able to win these games on this trip.”

To Atkinson’s point, the Lakers, who entered Thursday ranked 28th in defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) at 118.8, were solid when they got their set defense going. Their defensive half court rating of 101.5 ranks 8th in the entire league according to Cleaning The Glass.

But teams have been able to score at will against the Lakers when they can get out and run — which happens frequently.

The Lakers entered Thursday allowing 31.3 transition points per game, second-worst in the league behind the Utah Jazz (36.3). The Jazz and Lakers were the only teams to allow more than 30 transition points per game. Teams finish possessions in transition 22% of the time against the Lakers (the third worst score in the league) and scores 1.25 points for each transition play against them (the second worst score in the league).

There are several reasons for the Lakers’ struggles.

Even if was unavailable against the Grizzlies because of a bruised left heel and is an elite defenderAnthony Davis is often behind the play when the Lakers get back in transition, especially if he’s shooting near the basket. Opponents get out in transition more often when Davis is on the floor vs. off, especially off live rebounds, taking advantage of the fact that he’s usually nowhere near the rim in those situations.

Until Cam Reddish’s rotation debut in Monday’s loss to the Detroit Pistons, the Lakers generally lacked the foot speed and athleticism to stay in front of pace-pushing ball handlers, especially in the backcourt.

The Lakers have done a better job of staying out of limbo — between crashing the offensive glass and rebounding on defense, which often happens to the 39-year-old James — but they’re not consistently making the second effort after they slowed down. the initial attack.

“What we see as a coaching staff on film is what happens when we go back in terms of evenness, loading the basketball, our attention to detail on pick-up points against certain players,” Redick said Sunday. “That’s where I think we can make improvements.”