Lakers Poor Defense Leads To Loss To Jazz In Utah

Did the Lakers start a winning streak? The Lakers smashed the Pistons last Sunday night, 108-79, but Detroit is looked as one of the more worse teams in the league.

How did they fare on the road against a decent team like Utah, a squad that made the playoffs last season in a tough Western Conference? Let’s check the recap, ladies and fellas.

1ST QUARTER

The Lakers looked all out of sorts to start the quarter. Once in a while, you’d get good activity from them like this…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TOiN4l9KGc

But then Paul Millsap was outhustling the entire Laker team. He had five early rebounds and was routinely battling Dwight Howard.

The Lakers never seemed to get it going and while we all thought Metta World Peace was going to be the “back-up 2”, the line-up we saw was Darius Morris, Devin Ebanks, Antawn Jamison, Jordan Hill, and Pau Gasol. I am baffled. Not surprisingly, they couldn’t get anything going on with that offensive force of a line-up. The offense was certainly offensive.

L.A. had five turnovers in the first quarter and shot a fantastic 25 percent. The Jazz led after 1, 25-17.

2ND QUARTER

The Lakers continued to look, well, lethargic. It was so bad that even guys like Alec Burks was getting an offensive foul call out of Kobe.

The Jazz went on an 18-5 run that started in the first quarter. But the Lakers started slowly chipping away. Kobe got it going a little bit and, including a Steve Blake 3, L.A. was somehow able to cut the lead down to 8 points. We needed to see more of this action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlW4wVafcGU

The Jazz led at halftime, 51-41. The Lakers shot a not-so-accurate 34 percent, but at least, it improved…? The Jazz were killing the Lakers in points in the paint, 28-16. You know, the Lakers that have trees like Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol, and Jordan Hill.

3RD QUARTER

The Lakers once again resumed their terrible ways… but, at least, Howard did this…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ4cOW77U0U

It was really ugly in the first half of the third quarter. They scored a total of six points in the first six minutes and Kobe scored the last basket with 6:03 left in the third. The fans think they have the solution.

Well, the Lakers seemed to have a little more energy on both sides. They finally got on a 9-0 run, punctuated by a three-pointer by Steve Blake. With renewed energy, the Laker cut the lead down to 60-56.

However, a three-point play by Marvin Williams stopped the Laker momentum. The Jazz were able to hold off the Laker rally and were up after 3, 65-57.

4TH QUARTER

The Lakers did their best to hang in there. Darius Morris and Dwight Howard made three-point plays. They were able to cut the lead down to five.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMq2SAO9obg

And then Randy Foye made three straight three-pointers to put the lead up to 11. After that, the Lakers seemed to have just settled on trading baskets with the Jazz. The energy that they had at the end of the third and the start of the fourth? Gone. It’s like they went back to sleep again. Poor rotations. Lack of effort. Lackluster energy. They couldn’t make the open shots. Whether it’s from the field or from the line.

I think they need Jordan Farmar and Sasha Vujacic at this point (don’t listen to me).

In the end, the Lakers didn’t have enough, falling to the Jazz 95-86.

STAT LEADERS
POINTS: Kobe Bryant, 29
REBOUNDS: Jordan Hill, 12
ASSISTS: Kobe Bryant, 4
STEALS: Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, 3
BLOCKS: Dwight Howard, 2