The Lakers shot 60% including 55% from downtown, yet they could not put away the Jazz like they should have done under those circumstances.

If not for a brutal opening quarter that saw L.A. dump in 41 points, the Jazz played the Lakers even.  But the stretch that lost the game for Utah was not in that miserable 1st quarter, it came in the second half of the second quarter when the Jazz were outscored 17-3 over a four and a half minute span. The Lakers lead ballooned from six to twenty and the relatively good play of the Jazz for the rest of the game would go for not.

• Deron was spectacular despite the seven turnovers that he committed, finishing with 35 points and 9 assists to go along with 4 steals and 2 blocks.  D-will was deadly from outside, dropping in 6 of 11 three’s and also hitting a number of other long two’s.
• Utah “contained” Kobe relatively well again but did send him to the line ten times, he converted on nine of them. Bryant has really not forced his offense in the first quarter of the first two games and the Lakers have outscored the Jazz 71-48 in the combined first quarters.  Kobe has done most of his damage in quarter 2 through 4 and the Jazz are playing the Lakers even over those periods. Perhaps the Jazz should make Kobe do it himself by not dropping off other defenders to help (usually resulting in open Laker three’s).
• That deserves another mention… if you take out the first quarters, the Jazz have played the Lakers EVEN. This is why the Jazz have struggled so mightily on the road, they fall behind early and run out of time at the end. Whereas at home, the Jazz usually come out and get off to a decent start, playing relatively even or as front-runners rather than playing catch-up.

The series doesn’t really start until the home team loses a game, right?

After the Jazz started the opening few minutes strong, the Lakers imposed their will on the visiting 8th seed and built a 22 point halftime lead. In the second half, the Jazz fought back to narrow the margin to as few as 9 on multiple occasions but in the end game 1 was all L.A..

Wide Open Threes

The Lakers made 7 three’s (3 for Trevor Ariza and Shannon Brown, 1 for Luke Walton) and I’m pretty sure that every one of those makes was a WIDE-open look.  The Jazz must not allow the Laker role players to get such open looks because they can win the game with those looks just as much as Kobe Bryant can. This was something that killed the Jazz in the series against L.A. last year where Farmar, Fisher, Vujacic and Radmanovic put the dagger in the side of Jerry Sloan’s team.

Shannon Brown killed the Jazz with his play in game 1.  The Lakers were +20 in his 22 minutes in the game and were -8 with Derek Fisher running the point.

Boozer/Williams

Boozer had a season-high 27 points (yep, it hasn’t been a great season) to go along with 9 boards and a couple of steals.  It was perhaps Boozer’s best offensive game that we have seen all year, yet Booze was burned on countless occasions on defense and the words “Boozer with a very poor show [on pick-and-roll D]” continue to echo in my head.  But a Boozer with offense yet no defense is better than a Boozer with no offense and no defense so I will take this game as encouragement and hope that he can finally start to find his offensive game on a consistent basis.

Deron Williams had an interesting game. He piled up 17 assists to go with 16 points but had a rough game shooting the ball (4-14).  Deron seems to be effective breaking down the Lakers defense to a degree so if he can find his shot there is hope that he can lead the Jazz to a few W’s. Deron only had 3 TO’s to go with his 17 assist and two of those were in the final minutes.  It might not be a bad idea to play Deron for all 48 minutes during the rest of this series as Brevin Knight has not been playing well and the Jazz lost 5 points in his 3 minutes taking Deron’s place.

AK Steals the Ball!

With the Jazz down 11 with just under 4 minutes left in the game the Jazz needed a near flawless finish and catch a few breaks along the way.  Andrei Kirilenko played some fantastic one-on-one defense on Kobe on the perimeter and stripped the ball for a steal.  Bryant was back-peddling and AK had the chance to take it right at Bryant, probably resulting in a a dunk or foul. But instead AK threw a horrible pass into the 5th row at the Staples Center.  When AK’s pass landed in the rows occupied by C-list celebrities, so did the Jazz hopes of coming back to win game 1.  In addition, Deron was trailing AK and a simple pass back to D-will would have given the Jazz an easy 2.  Let’s go to Twitter for the reaction:

1. phoenixstan Wow. AK47 a the steal and then the bail. Cry me a river
2. 3QCMagic Ladies and gents, that’s Andrei Kirilenko’s post-Boozer-arrival career in a nutshell. Gah.
3. talkhoops Kirilenko passing up that dunk perfectly summed up this day for the Jazz
4. macmissionary Now why doesn’t AK dunk over Kobe.
5. HPbasketball Bryant got insanely high on that. AK still could have dunked on him if AK wasn’t AK.
6. 1280TheZone wow. Ak pick pockets kobe drawing aahs from crowd & then throws it away on break. not his day
7. HPbasketball Aaaaand that’s AK.

It’s not all AK’s fault but the Jazz were -21 in the 26 minutes that he was on the court

Jarron Collins Came to Play

Speaking of +/-, Jarron Collins was the only Jazz player in the positive for the game at +2.  Jarron stepped in to start in place of the injured Memo Okur and had 7 point and 7 rebounds in 15 minutes.  Jarron brought energy and some decent defense in his best performance in some time… unfortunately it was wasted in a loss.

Lack of D

Utah did a relatively good job of containing Kobe Bryant, holding him to “just” 24 points on 17 shots.  A good sign is that Kobe only went to the line 7 times (Kobe shot 96 FTs in the 6 game series last year). The Jazz had ZERO blocks to the Lakers NINE on the Jazz. I look for that stat and the defense to pick up some when the series moves to SLC where the Jazz play with more energy but the Jazz cannot win when they give up 110+ points to the Lakers. The Lakers ended the game shooting 55.6% from the field.

Game 2 -Tuesday at 8:30 Mountain Time on TNT

I would not count on Memo making a return for the Jazz in game 2 so the Jazz need to find someone that can hit outside shots. Ideally, Deron will find his shot, making him even deadlier attacking the Lakers defense.  The Jazz played a pretty good second half, outscoring L.A. by nine… but the Jazz cannot afford to fall behind and play catchup again.

Lakers 1-0

If you flip on SportsCenter or read articles and blogs around the web without knowing any better, you would probably think the the Lakers have already swept their way through the West.  That is disrespecting the talent level of not only the Utah Jazz but also the Nuggets, Spurs, Blazers, Rockets, Mavericks and Hornets.

The L.A. Times thinks that the Lakers have a pretty good shot at getting to the Finals:

Meanwhile, the odds in the Western draw can be summed up as follows:

Lakers, 1-5.

Portland, 5-1.

Five other teams, 20-1.

Utah, 100-1.

The West isn’t what it was, but no one made the playoffs with fewer than 48 wins, which would have been No. 4 in the East.

If Utah looks overmatched against the Lakers, with Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan, of all people, calling its outlook “bleak,” there are Western teams that pose a threat.

We just don’t know who they are now . . . aside from Portland, with a rising, young team that won 54 games, finished 19-5, and has an eight-game winning streak over the Lakers in the Rose Garden, going back four years.

[Source: Los Angeles Times - NBA playoffs: Lakers have to keep eye on Trail Blazers]

If asked who I would take to get out of the West between the Lakers and the field… I take the field. 

“Now if you wanna crown ‘em, then crown their ass”:

But, this is not a dire situation.  I have overheard many Jazz fans say that they would rather have missed out on the playoffs all together rather than face these Lakers. Yes, the Lakers are a quality team but they are not yet NBA champions.  

Yes, the Jazz have a chance to win this series. I may be an optimist but I fully believe the Jazz can win all three home games of this series and thus send it to a seventh game and have a shot to take down the mightly Lakers.  And yes, the Jazz were terrible on the road this season, but weren’t they pretty terrible the last 2 seasons as well yet went on to win road games in Houston (3 times) and Golden State (Jazz were given little chance in that game).

David Locke has  a great breakdown of the series:

Rest is Underrated

The Jazz will have had some much needed rest when they take the court in L.A. today: 

The Jazz will have at least one advantage this year against the Lakers compared to last year’s series. They had to turn around barely 48 hours after closing out Houston in the first round last May and open their conference semifinals series in Los Angeles.

    This year, the Jazz will have had four days to prepare for the Lakers, time for two full practices and a shootaround. It’s as much practice time as they’ve had in the last three weeks combined thanks to a crazy closing schedule.

    “I think more than anything it’s three days to recover a little bit,” Sloan said. “We’ve been in this situation before. The year that we went to the [Western Conference] finals, we had a terrible finish. It wasn’t a great finish. Everybody panicked with the way the season went.

    “That seems to be the way it is now. But our players, I think, will come together and give us a good effort, and that’s how you have a chance to win.”

Source: Salt Lake Tribune Jazz Blog]

I think that much of the Jazz problems down the stretch of the season could have been solved with some rest.  The team had a brutal schedule sending them out on the road for most of the last month. Once it began to unravel, there was never any time to take a break and work it out.  With this extended rest heading into the Laker series, the Jazz will have at least had time to prepare and gather themselves. 

Keep Kobe Off the Line

In the six game series last season between the Lakers and Jazz, Kobe went to the free-throw line 96 times.  In game one alone Kobe hit 21 of 23 free throws.  

Ronnie Brewer and Andrei Kirilenko need to stay in front of Kobe without fouling him. Of course, much easier said than done, but the foul-happy Jazz need to keep Bryant from getting free opportunities from the line.

Are all 7 Games in L.A.?

Has everyone forgotten that the Jazz are really good at home?

Yes, the Jazz lost at home to the Warriors and T-wolves at the end of the season but before that they were riding a 15-game home winning streak and their problems were mainly confined to the road. Despite those loses, ESA is a different animal when it is playoff atmosphere making it difficult for any opposing team to come away with a victory. 

The Jazz won games 3 and 4 last year at home to the Lakers and really should have had game 6 if not for a miserable first quarter which they nearly recovered from.

Memo’s Hammy

Memo Okur is looking doubtful for game one in L.A. and could be out even longer with his hamstring injury.  The Jazz must get Memo back by game 3 at home to really have a chance in this series.

Previews, Previews, Previews

Jazz-Lakers series page at ESPN.com

Scouts, Inc. breakdown of Jazz-Lakers by position, etc.

Luke Walton NBA Blog Squad preview

SLC Dunk: 3 Reasons with the L.A. Times

True Blue Jazz: Optimist vs. Pessimist Breakdown

 Game 1: Jazz at Lakers - SUN 4/19 – 3:00 PM ET on ABC

Game 2: Jazz at Lakers - TUE 4/21 - 10:30 PM ET on TNT

Game 3: Lakers at Jazz - THU 4/23 - 10:30 PM ET on TNT

Game 4: Lakers at Jazz - SAT 4/25 - 9:00 PM ET on ESPN

*Game 5: Jazz at Lakers - MON 4/27 - TBD

*Game 6: Lakers at Jazz - THU 4/30 - TBD

*Game 7: Jazz at Lakers - SAT 5/2 - TBD on TNT

* if necessary