Los Angeles Lakers vs Utah Jazz >> A Salty Series Heads to Salt Lake
Written by Jamie McCracken
-
April 23, 2009
SALT LAKE CITY, U.T. -- Going down two games to none is something the Utah Jazz did not want to picture. After their eleventh consecutive loss in Los Angeles, Utah will need to be on their top game to beat the "favorites" out west. Kobe Bryant and Trevor Ariza has had an exhilarating series thus far verse the Jazz combining for 83 points in the the two wins for Phil Jackson's Laker team. "The series is not over. They just did what they were supposed to do -- win at home," Utah point guard Deron Williams told the AP. Utah will head into EnergySolutions Arena hoping to feed off their home crowd energy -- something Utah is known for. Utah will need to come out showing that they're still in this series immediately. The Lakers shot 86 percent in the first quarter Tuesday night. That kind of shooting led them to a blistering 41-point quarter. Mehmet Okur is a game-time decision for tonight's game. Okur is the Jazz's leading 3-point threat and the second best rebounder on a team that needs to rebound and get a win. The defense is still "suspect." I'm not sold and neither is Jerry Sloan."We've got to handle the basketball," Sloan said. "When you give them 34 points off of turnovers, where does that put you? You can talk about all the stuff you want, but you've got to handle the basketball" (AP). One thing I know, L.A. cannot shoot 52 percent like they have the past two games. The Jazz will get their consistnecy from pointguard, Deron Williams, but will someone else step up tonight? Boozer had a nice 20-10 game, lets see if he can produce tonight. They will tip it off right around 10:40 p.m. ET in "The City of Mormans" (whoops, it slipped). |
![]() |