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Lakers Final Score: LA Narrowly Avoids Embarrassment Against Jazz Scrubs, Survives OT

But a win is a win, and LA improves to 41-38.

Alex Kirschenbaum

Lakers Final Score: LA Narrowly Avoids Embarrassment Against Jazz Scrubs, Survives OT
Lakers Final Score: LA Narrowly Avoids Embarrassment Against Jazz Scrubs, Survives OT /
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Tonight, your mostly-healthy Los Angeles Lakers almost lost to the banged-up Utah Jazz’s B-squad, featuring a lot of ex-Lakers looking for extract a pint of vengeance.

But they didn’t.

The end of an NBA season can be wonky. Weird “schedule losses” happen. Too-close wins happen. Teams are often caught looking over their shoulders at the competition, with one eye towards the postseason – utterly unfocused on the task at hand.

To an extent, that’s what seemed to happen at Vivint Arena. But we should also accord credit where it’s due – the Jazz’s scrubs, all young, athletic, and tall, put up a heck of a fight, and capitalized on the Lakers’ sloppiness in key moments.

During the game’s first quarter, things were fairly even – which in itself served as the first sign of trouble. The Lakers were expected to blow the doors off a Jazz team missing top two scorers Lauri Markkanen and Jordan Clarkson, plus top post defender Walker Kessler. Instead, Utah was aggressive from the jump, employing an evenly-distributed offense to keep LA on its toes. 

The Lakers led by a point at the end of the first quarter, 34-33, thanks in large part to the scoring of Anthony Davis (10 points), Austin Reaves (eight points), and LeBron James and Rui Hachimura (six points apiece).

In the second frame, Dennis Schröder (starting for the injured D’Angelo Russell) started cooking. 

James and Davis showed off their impeccable two-man game a bit, as well, during the contest's second quarter. 

Austin Reaves also exhibited his adept passing acumen in the period. LA outscored Utah 34-24 in the frame, and led by 11 at the break, 68-57.

The third quarter proved to be a game of runs. After an Austin Reaves triple opened up a 71-57 lead, Talen Horton-Tucker went to work, helping to lead the Jazz on a 13-3 run. The Lakers responded with a 10-2 tear. Things went back-and-forth through the frame, and the Jazz’s surprisingly resilient young guns closed the period just a few points shy of Los Angeles, who still led 97-93 heading into the final quarter of regulation.

Rui Hachimura, weirdly, had yet another big game, and was particularly proficient in the third:

Although the fourth period started off as more of the same, everything seemed to be coming up Milhouse for the Lakers by the two-minute warning. Los Angeles led by 10, 124-114, with 1:43 remaining. LA loosened their grip, and Utah opted to pounce, going on a 10-0 run to close out regulation -- Ochai Agbaji and Kelly Olynyk nailed a pair of triples, Kris Dunn (who wasn't even rostered on an NBA team until last month, but has found something again in Utah) had a layup, ex-Laker Damian Jones nailed two charity stripe tries, and Anthony Davis botched a paint attempt. 

Even after that run, the Lakers still had a chance to win outright at the end of the fourth quarter, but LeBron James uncharacteristically blew what would have been a game-sealing layup as time expired.

Grisly. 

Kelly Olynyk and Talen Horton-Tucker poured in buckets aplenty during the overtime period, but they found themselves matched at pretty much every turn by LeBron James, who scored all but two of the Lakers’ points in the frame (Austin Reaves contributed those two, off a 19-foot jumper). LA survived, just barely, thanks to a LeBron James layup and a terrible missed THT floater that could have potentially sent the teams to a costly second overtime.

With the 135-133 overtime victory, Los Angeles improves to a 4-0 record on its current road trip, and a 41-38 finish overall on the season.

James finished with a game-high 37 points while shooting 14-of-27 from the floor and 6-of-6 from the charity stripe, six assists (albeit against five turnovers), five rebounds, a steal and a block.

Davis had 21 points on 7-of-16 shooing from the floor and 7-of-12 shooting from the free throw line, 14 rebounds, six assists, two steals and two blocks.

Reaves (28 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the floor and 8-of-8 shooting from the free throw line), Schröder (18 points on 7-of-18 shooting), and Hachimura (17 points on 7-of-11 shooting) were the Lakers' other double-digit scorers for the night.

For a while tonight, at least, the Lakers even snuck out of the play-in tournament bracket and into the Western Conference's sixth seed. But that would prove short-lived, at least for now. 

The Golden State Warriors pulled away from the Oklahoma City Thunder in what had been a close game at Chase Center to win 136-125 and improve to a 42-38 record on the year. LA remains the seventh seed, but following tonight's New Orleans Pelicans loss and this Lakers win, there's now one game separating the teams.

Given that the statuses of James and Davis were tenuous at best heading into the night, and the fact that each played major minutes to get this win (38:38 for James and a team-high 42:05 for Davis), I'm skeptical the Lakers will play both stars tomorrow night against the Los Angeles Clippers, in the club's final back-to-back matchup of the year.

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Alex Kirschenbaum
ALEX KIRSCHENBAUM

Basketball is Alex's favorite sport, he likes the way they dribble up and down the court.

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