Utah Jazz: Lakers spoil Jazz home fun
Indeed it was.
The Los Angeles Lakers rode All-Star Kobe Bryant and protected their advantage in the second half at sold-out EnergySolutions Arena, beating Utah 106-95 in the late-starting TNT-televised game.
That ends the Jazz's streak of consecutive home victories at 19, one shy of a new franchise record.
It also marks just the fourth loss in 33 home games this season for coach Jerry Sloan's 45-25 club, which continues a five-game homestand with Saturday's visit from Seattle.
For that, All-Star power forward Carlos Boozer suggested the Jazz had no one to blame but themselves.
"We just came out and started taking jumpshots a little bit, ran the wrong offense," said Boozer, who 3-for-7 in the first quarter but finished with a 23-point, 15-rebound double-double. "Then we started running the right offense, and started to come back a little bit."
The Lakers, in fact, did not leave without a scare.
Williams hit the resulting free throw, pulling the Jazz to within eight at 96-88 — the closest they had been since the game's first five minutes.
Bryant, though, cleaned up his mini-mess, first dunking and then, after a Williams miss, throwing a no-look pass to Luke Walton for a fastbreak layup that made it 100-88.
"He can shoot the ball, he can take it to the basket," Jazz shooting guard Ronnie Brewer said of Bryant, who wound up with a game-high 27 points, hit 11-of-24 from the field and dished seven assists. "So, it's kind of hard to try to make him do one thing.
"There's guys in the NBA, they make shots," Brewer added. "I mean, he's a great player — so, that's probably why he's an MVP candidate."
The Pacific Division-leading Lakers, playing at the tail end of a four-game road trip, led from wire-to-wire while improving to 47-21.
The Lakers jumped on the Northwest Division-leading Jazz from the get-go, shooting 75 percent from the field (15-of-20) in the first quarter to take an early 38-18 lead.
The 38 marks the most Utah has yielded in an opening quarter this season, matching a total the Lakers put up in late December and New Orleans did again in late February.
"The offense we started in," Boozer said, "made us start rushing our shots a little bit. And then we finally got into our (automatics) and some other things. And then, at the same time, we didn't stop 'em. I mean, it seemed like they made every shot they took."
By the time backup point guard Jordan Farmar drove for a layup four-plus minutes into the second quarter, the Laker lead was up to a game-high 24 at 47-23.
Slowly but surely, the Jazz did chip away.
Brewer drove for a layup and hit the free throw that followed in the final minute of the first half to cut L.A.'s advantage to 15 at 60-45, and the Jazz got it down to as few as to 11 a couple times in the third quarter, the second time when Brewer's 21-foot jumper made it 77-66 with 3:12 to go in the period.
Bryant immediately answered Brewer with a short turnaround, though, and the Lakers took a 12-point advantage into the final quarter.
Eight, though, would be the closest they could come in the fourth.
"Whenever we got on the run, there was kind of definitely a light at the end of the tunnel," Brewer said. "But they kept executing their offense and knocking down shots, attacked the basket and did what they had to do to win the game."
NOTES: Booed loudly the first time he played in Utah this season, ex-Jazz guard Derek Fisher of the Lakers — who asked out of his contract with the Jazz last summer, citing his young daughter's battle with cancer — received a few more cheers than jeers during pre-game introductions Thursday. Fisher was, however, mildly booed each time he touched the ball in the opening quarter. Afterward, Bryant — who slammed the ball to the floor at the final whistle — suggested that reception from late November was not forgotten. "I'm very upset," he said in a TNT interview. "You know, the last time we came out here they booed Derek — for no reason. I (said) this morning it was very personal." ... Laker absentees, as expected, included big men Pau Gasol (sprained ankle) and Andrew Bynum (dislocated kneecap). . . . Because of the length of the game preceding it, the Jazz and Lakers did not actually tip off until 8:53 p.m.
E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com
Recent comments
Multiple people threw stuff on the court during the game. I saw...
I was there | March 30, 2008 at 8:06 a.m.
Is there anyone on here who actually knows basketball and doesn&#...
Anonymous | March 23, 2008 at 5:08 p.m.
You forgot about the part where Kobe whined last year about needing...
RE: I enjoy the comment | March 22, 2008 at 1:54 p.m.
