Smooth Jazz put Lakers to Sleep

Once again, the Lakers had trouble going into Salt Lake City and coming away with a victory. The Jazz, with their 113-109 win over L.A., brought an end to the Lakers’ 7-game win streak. On the strength of 31 points and 11 assists from Deron Williams, the shiftiest pure point guard in the game, and bigtime shots from Mehmet Okur, the Jazz edged out L.A. in a thriller of a fourth quarter.

The Jazz are a team that we should keep on our radar. Even though they currently sit in 8th place in the West, they’re a good, young team that’ll be even better when Carlos Boozer and Andre Kirilenko return from injury. Deron William, C.J. Miles, and Ronnie Brewer are explosive, hungry, and tireless young stars, and Kyle Korver is a deadly perimeter shooter along with Okur.

I suspect the second half of the season will be quite different for the Utah Jazz.

So, what happened last night? I know there are no excuses for losing, but I just think the Lakers were ready to take the All-Star break and get some rest. After a six-game road trip out East that saw first a 61-point outbust from Kobe, then a game in Canada, followed by an overtime grind in Boston, and finally a Sunday afternoon trip to Cleveland where Lebron and the Cavs hadn’t lost, the Lakers finally got to come home and relax on Tuesday night against Oklahoma City. But then to tell them they’d have to fly out to Utah for a final road game against the Jazz before the All-Star break, they probably didn’t see the point in traveling again just for a one-game road trip.

Kobe seemed to be using the game as practice: working on his post-up game, jogging back on defense, attempting tougher shots than he was given or than he could’ve created. I mean, there were those hustle plays – I can remember off the top of my head three steals by Kobe that he then took to the hoop himself afterwards. Lamar stayed solid, hauling in 19 boards and making 2 big blocks. Pau also did some experimenting, knocking down a couple 20-footers while testing his range.
The Lakers have gotten to a point where they’ve already proven that they can win big games against the league’s elite when they come out with a sense of urgency. I hope that realization doesn’t prevent them from approaching every game with a high level of focus.