<font color="RoyalBlue"><font size="3"><div align="center">Utah Jazz (17-34) @ Los Angeles Lakers (25-24) Tuesday February 15th, 2005 - 10:30PM ET Tipoff (on FoxW)</div></font></font> Projected Lakers Starters <font color="Indigo">PG - Chucky Atkins SG - Kobe Bryant SF - Caron Butler PF - Lamar Odom C - Chris Mihm</font> Projected Jazz Starters PG - Raul Lopez SG - Raja Bell SF - Gordon Giricek PF - Matt Harpring C - Mehmet Okur Jazz lead the the season series 2-0 Key Stat Utah has lost 11 out of their last 12 on the road. Key Match-Up Kobe Bryant vs. Raja Bell Kobe Bryant's return was spoiled by LeBron James and the Cavs. Losing in his return and having LeBron get the better of the two, had to leave a bad taste in Kobe's mouth. Kobe Bryant has always played with conviction against the Jazz, and I expect him to come out and take control of this game early. Kobe has always been guarded well by Raja Bell, ever since they faced off in the NBA Finals when Bell was with the 76ers. Bell is a terrific on the ball defender, and Kobe needs to use his size better against Bell, instead of trying to beat him off the dribble. If Kobe commits to backing Bell down and shooting over the top of him, I expect the Lakers to have a better chance at winning. On defense, Kobe has to be disciplined and confident in his teammates being able to guard their man. Kobe has a tendency to cheat off of his man and if he leaves Bell any daylight, Bell is going to knock down the 3-ball. Lakers' Keys to the Game - Take advantage of an injured Jazz unit - Crash the boards on both ends - Attack the basket and take advantage of mis-matches - The Bench better show up tonight Jazz Keys to the Game - Stay out of foul trouble, only 7 guys suit up tonight - Control the tempo and force the Lakers to play in a half-court set - Hit free throws. The last game the Jazz shot only 60.5% from the line Prediction The Lakers have dropped two games to the Jazz already this season. Tonight the Jazz will likely be without McLeod, Kirilenko and Boozer. There is no reason the Lakers cannot win this game and have a relatively easy time of it. However, this is a Laker team playing down to the competition of their opponent all season long. The Lakers have to take care of business tonight and not overlook a depleted Jazz unit. The Lakers don't have many home games left the rest of the year, and they are battling for their playoff lives. I predict the Lakers winning this game 93-87. Unfortunately it's going to be closer than anyone expects, but the Jazz always seem to find a way to get the most out of their players. Hopefully the Laker bench shows up tonight and gets the Lakers 15 or 20 points.
I have to go with the Lakers in this one. Kobe is back and that's gonna help a ton. He had a decent comeback game, but his shooting was awful. I also think Lamar should have a huge game tonight. No Boozer of AK47 to defend him will be great for him. He should be able to use his athleticism to score and without those two, he should be able to dominate the boards. Also, hopefully someone aside from those two show up tonight. Chucky needs to have a good game and the bench needs to show up tonight also. But, I don't see the Lakers having a problem winning tonight. The Jazz are a depleted team right now and they don't have a huge offensive or defensive threat right now. Should be a fairly easy win for the Lakers.
There is no reason why the Lakers shouldn't win. Kobe looked good in his first game back considering the elements. If he can continue to improve, shoot a little less and a little better the Lakers will win. I take L.A. with a big game from Lamar Odom. 102-96.
no boozer and kirilenko? Kobe will destroy Raja Bell and even the Lakers frontline has an advantage.. now thats rare. Lakers by 20. even with them playing i'd go with L.A. though, the Jazz aren't the same team as they have been in years past.
I wouldnt sleep on the jazz regaurdless....Raja bell is noted for scoring big on LA (especially from the bench) This guy can play. Same for harpring and such when left open and the lakers do that often. There is no for sure victory for LA this year, but there are many games that should be capatolized on by LA....this is one of them. No AK47 and no Booz, if LA loses...they deserve to lose, there will be no excuse for not bringing it tonight. In my opinion THIS is the most important game of the 1st half and its the last which is why its important. End the streak now, go into the all star and the other half of the season on a fresh start. Maybe Kobe can actully get the AS MVP this year (Shaq got it instead last season...smh) and with the starting lineup back in tact....its time for nothing more then a hungry win, nothing less. DMK
Why isn't Lamar playing? And one more thing, Can we please trade Mihm...he really is frustrating. The most inconsistant player I have seen in awhile, he can't stay out of foul trouble... EDIT: Kobe is looking good so far. 22 points on 8-13 shooting and 5 assists to start the 2nd half. 4TH QUARTER EDIT: Kobe is having a terrific game...38 points on 12/19 shooting,8 assists. 1:51 left in the 4th, good game going...93-93 EDIT GAME OVER: LAKERS WIN. Slaval slapped the ball away on the Jazz most crucial posession and Kobe got 2 FT's off of it. Lakers- 102 Jazz- 95 Caron with 23, Kobe with 40. Chucky hit the go ahead 3, and hit some big FT's to put us up for good.
WHAT A GAME! ahhh the refs was killing my interest with the inconsistant calls, but the 2nd half was a little better. Lamar was out with the flu, wasnt even in the building, slava started instead and filled in nicely. Mihm was getting bad calls all night, BUT he had the defensive play of the game with that block with lakers up by 1 that put them ahead for good. Slava! first start of the year and he played great considering with a couple of strips that led to steals Caron was terrifec tonight, on both ends had a couple of amazing blocks and he was really active tonight....one of his best nights as a laker IMO. he finished 23pts 8rebs. Chucky was horrible from the arc, but hit some clutch 3's when it counted. he finished with 24 and 7assists Kobe....EFFICIENT!... 40pts 12-19 shooting, 8 assist and 5 rebounds 3 steals....oh and did i mention that this is his second game back? HUGE win for the lakers
Great effort in the final quarter by the Lakers. I might have to make it a habit to just watch the last quarter, because they drive me crazy for the first three. The Lakers played terrible and found themselves playing catch up again. Surprisingly Kobe didn't even have a single rebound in the first 3 quarters. The Lakers could not make wide open shots Kobe set them up for, and the Jazz came out blazing to start the game. The Lakers had to rely on some clutch defensive stops and a ridiculous 3 point shot by Kobe. The Laker bench did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in this game. The Laker bench got outscored 50 to 2. The Lakers also didn't take advantage of turnovers they forced until the final quarter. With Denver and Minnesota also having comeback wins, this effort by the Lakers tonight was huge heading into the All-Star Break. Kobe Bryant was amazing tonight. He set up his teammates all game long, and showed more discipline in his shot selection. He only shot from behind the arc 3 times, and was relentless at attacking the basket. Kobe ended up with 19 FTAs in the game and made 12 of his 19 FGAs. Kobe did a great job defensively on Snyder and Giricek holding them for a combined 5 for 14 from the field. The Jazz also deserve a lot of credit in this game. They played the better game until the final quarter, despite not having Kirilenko or Boozer in the game. The Jazz scrapped for second chance baskets and caused a lot of confusion by running crisp cuts and rolling off of picks. Mehmet Okur came up big off the bench, and Eisley stepped in once Lopez went down with an injury. The Jazz just don't make mistakes that cost them games.
We sucked but Kobe is just crazy good and won this game for us. We desperately need a coach to bring this ragtag team together. Good to see that Caron is studying the Overload during the break, though.
"Great effort in the final quarter by the Lakers. I might have to make it a habit to just watch the last quarter, because they drive me crazy for the first three" Yea i know what you mean man...i tell myself that all the time but i cant help it. That one 3 kobe hit with the shot clock going off..the fade...eek! that was clutch and was WET!. I love watching the lakers win, i hate it so bad when they lose...always have. But now that the re-building process is in effect the i try and look at the best in the losses, like the SA game a couple weeks ago they could have won that, but started to get blown out but came back at the end...thats a takeable loss if there ever was one..
Great win for the Lakers. Showed the ability to come back from behind and also did this without Lamar Odom. Hopefully the Lakers can use this win to get some momentum, and who knows, maybe win more than two in a row, which is something they have yet to do this season. But, with Kobe back, I really think the Lakers have the ability to pick up their level of play and make a run for a higher seed in the playoffs after the All Star break. We'll have to see though. Hopefully Odom, Butler, and Atkins don't just disappear now that Kobe is back, hopefully they can play at a level near what they were playing, because they won't be able to score as much now that Kobe is back. However, if they can continue to keep the ball movement up and pass the ball around like they were doing without Kobe (Atkins and Odom averaged roughly 7apg and 5apg respectively with Kobe gone I believe), that'd be huge for the Lakers. They need to stray away from playing individual basketball and move the ball. If they do that, they have enough athleticism and talent to beat any team in the league, as long as they share the ball.
with boston and portland coming up, i think we have a very good chance of finally winnning 3 straight lol
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting DMKfromTPL:</div><div class="quote_post">"Great effort in the final quarter by the Lakers. I might have to make it a habit to just watch the last quarter, because they drive me crazy for the first three" Yea i know what you mean man...i tell myself that all the time but i cant help it. That one 3 kobe hit with the shot clock going off..the fade...eek! that was clutch and was WET!. I love watching the lakers win, i hate it so bad when they lose...always have. But now that the re-building process is in effect the i try and look at the best in the losses, like the SA game a couple weeks ago they could have won that, but started to get blown out but came back at the end...thats a takeable loss if there ever was one..</div> Yeah I still have to watch the entire game, but it's been brutal. The way the Lakers come out in the 2nd half, maybe Hamblen is the best coach of all time making these half time adjustments. I'm just glad the Lakers pulled off a win before the break. Let's just hope we get some help from the teams playing the TWolves and Nuggets the rest of the way.
