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

Jackson immediately gave the ball up to fellow big man Brandon Clarke flanking his left side, with 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 halfcourt.

Grizzlies star guard Ja Morant cut to the middle of the floor just a few feet past halfcourt, drawing the attention of Vincent, Russell and Hayes, who failed to deflect Clarke’s pass to Morant.

As Russell stunted at Morant, Jake LaRavia ran down the right wing, with Russell’s back turned toward the Memphis forward. And within one second of catching the ball, Morant swiftly passed it from right above the top of the 3-point arc to LaRavia inside the paint with no Laker within an arm’s reach of him, 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 halfcourt, Vincent and Hayes near the 3-point line and Russell multiple steps behind LaRavia.

Although it was just one play, it was one of many examples of an issue that has plagued the Lakers this season: poor transition defense.

The Grizzlies, one of the league’s top transition teams, scored 27 fastbreak points against the Lakers, who are allowing a league-worst 21.5 fastbreak points per game. They’ve allowed at least 21 fastbreak points in six of their eight games.

Their opponents have picked up on this 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 vs. the Philadelphia 76ers.

“We’re going to have to,” Cleveland Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson responded when asked about pushing the pace ahead of their Oct. 30 matchup against the Lakers. “They’re too good in the halfcourt. They have one of the best rim protectors in the league, excellent perimeter defenders. And they’re smart, too.

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

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

Transition defense had been a talking point at nearly every media availability Lakers coach JJ Redick had during the road trip.

Despite this, he had a blunt response of “no” when asked ahead of Wednesday’s game whether he felt his team was making progress with its transition defense after having multiple practices and shootarounds during the trip.

“It’s concerning because it’s not good,” Reaves said of the team’s transition defense after the loss to the Grizzlies. “Eight games in 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 wanna win every game and that’s one reason, along with many others that we haven’t been able to win these games on this road trip.”

To Atkinson’s point, the Lakers, who entered Thursday ranked No. 28 in defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) at 118.8, have been solid when they’ve been able to get their defense set. Their halfcourt defensive rating of 101.5 ranks No. 8 across the 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 points in transition per game, the league’s second-worst mark behind the the Utah Jazz (36.3). The Jazz and the Lakers were the only teams allowing more than 30 transition points per game. Teams finish possessions in transition 22% of the time against the Lakers (the league’s third-worst mark) and score 1.25 points per transition play against them (the league’s second-worst mark).

There are multiple reasons for the Lakers’ struggles.

Even though he wasn’t available against the Grizzlies because of a bruised left heel and is an elite defender, Anthony Davis is often behind the play when the Lakers are getting back in transition, especially if he took a shot near the basket. Opponents get out in transition more frequently when Davis is on the floor vs. off, especially off of live rebounds, taking advantage of the fact he usually isn’t near the rim in these situations.

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

The Lakers have done a better job of staying out of limbo — in between crashing the offensive glass and getting back on defense, which often happens to the 39-year-old James — but don’t consistently make the second effort plays after slowing down the initial attack.

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

If there’s a reason to be skeptical about the Lakers improving their transition defense, it’s rooted in the fact that they’ve struggled in this area for a while.

The Lakers were 27th in points per game allowed in transition in both seasons under previous coach Darvin Ham (2022-24).

“I don’t know that we’re gonna put a number on being 15th,” Redick responded when asked what realistic progress they can make with transition defense. “I don’t think any of us are pushing for mediocrity. One of the metrics we’ve talked about is the limbo rate. And our limbo rate has been good. Our crash rate’s been bad. We’re still having the same issues, so I’m hoping over this week that we get to be home, we get some practice time and can really dedicate some court time to our transition defense.”