Lakers-Jazz Final Score: LA Survives Another Hard-Fought Battle Against JV Utah Squad
It may not have been pretty, but your Los Angeles Lakers ultimately did close out the Utah Jazz today, 128-117, buoyed by 19-time All-Star LA small forward LeBron James' Herculean efforts from the three-point line.
James scored 36 points overall, and 24 of those came from outside (he went 8-of-14 from three-point land).
James was LA's only player to score more than 17 points, though seven Lakers did score in double-digits (the starters plus Malik Beasley and Rui Hachimura off the bench) during a fairly balanced attack around James.
Things started off fairly well for the Lakers, playing against the tanking Jazz's Junior Varsity squad (plus regular starter Kelly Olynyk). LA got off to a rollicking start behind its new first five of D'Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, James, Jarred Vanderbilt and Anthony Davis (who are now 5-1 in their games together as starters), leading by as many as 13 points early in the first frame, but these young, fearless Utah players fought back. Anthony Davis manned the middle with typical aplomb, at least in the first quarter.
A 5-0 run via ex-Lakers forward Juan Toscano-Anderson and some guy named Johnny Juzang in the first period's first 43 seconds helped the Jazz close the gap to just a two-possession game, 31-25, heading into the second quarter.
Things got even more uncomfortably close throughout most of the game's second frame, with Los Angeles leading Utah by just a point, 53-52, at the 2:57 mark, before remembering that the Jazz were sitting six rotation players and closing out the half on a 12-2 LA run. Everything was kicked off by this crisp passing sequence leading to a D'Angelo Russell triple.
The Lakers led by 65-56 at the break.
LA's lackluster defense was a big reason things were so close even late into the fourth quarter. They allowed the Jazz's young athletic perimeter players to get whatever they wanted on drives (to wit, Utah handily outscored LA in the post, 76-50, for the game), and struggled to communicate when their coverages were switched on pick-and-roll actions.
But Utah just ran out of gas late, and it could not contain an absolute three-point heater courtesy of James. It also helped that Davis again remembered he could, you know, block fools at will at some point in the fourth frame:
James put the finishing touches on his epic night with his definitive game-capping trey. He was, uh, not subtle about celebrating the achievement:
Is it a little disconcerting that a team trying desperately to lose against LA almost won? Indeed, but these were young, hungry deep-bench guys playing what they knew was their final game of the season, facing off against an exhausted, somewhat banged-up Lakers club whose top three scorers were all game-time decisions.
For the game, Los Angeles enjoyed big advantages in points scored off turnovers (13-7), three-point shooting (LA went a robust 18-for-45, while Utah shot 10-for-35), and foul shooting of course (the Lakers shot 16-of-21 from the charity stripe, the Jazz were just 5-of-6).
At 43-39, the Lakers are now locked into the seventh seed in the Western Conference, which will necessitate playing at least one play-in game, at home, against an embattled 42-40 Minnesota Timberwolves club that may hate itself more than any one opponent. The winner of that game will go on to play the second-seeded 51-31 Memphis Grizzlies, who will be without starting center Steven Adams and backup big Brandon Clarke for the duration of the playoffs.
The loser will need to play another bonus play-in game, where it will host the winner of the play-in game between the West's ninth-seeded New Orleans Pelicans (42-40) and tenth-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder (40-42).
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