Utah Jazz(11-7) @ Los Angeles Lakers(16-3) Key stats Jazz road record: 1-6 Lakers home record 10-0(Just this season) Streaks: Utah won 1, Lakers won 8 Last met:Teams have not met this season Last games: Clippers 67 @ Jazz 86 Lakers 114 @ Dallas 103 Standings:Lakers 1st Western Conference, Jazz 5th Western Conference Likely Starters: Jazz/Lakers PG-Raul Lopez/Gary Payton SG-Deshawn Stevenson/Kobe Bryant SF-Matt Harpring/Devean George PF-Andrei Kirilenko/Horace Grant C-Greg Ostertag/Shaquille O'Neal Injuries (Definite) Jazz-Keon Clark, Michael Ruffin, Lakers-Jamal Sampson, Rick Fox, Brian Cook Questionable Jazz-Raul Lopez, Carlos Arroyo Suspensions-Lakers-Karl Malone(1 game) Keys to the game Utah- Utah's 2 best players, Matt Harpring and Andrei Kirilenko are up against the Lakers "weak" spots. Andrei is being guarded by Horace Grant instead of Karl Malone and Matt Harpring is been guarded by Devean George. To win, they will need Matt Harpring and AK47 to get a lot of points. At least 20 for both of them because Greg Ostertag will not score much on Shaq, Deshawn Stevenson wont score much on Kobe Bryant and there is no way Raul Lopez will score much on Gary Payton. They've got to limit Shaq's presence on the boards and try to get him in foul trouble so Utah can dominate with their big men(Ostertag and Kirilenko) which they have done in most of Utah's games. Utah has somehow got to stop the Laker guards, Gary Payton and Kobe Bryant. They should score a lot along with Shaq so they need to have their scoring limited. Lakers- Get the ball to Gary Payton, Kobe Bryant and Shaq. They should all score a lot in this game, and Kobe or Shaq could get 40+ if they play well. They need to use Shaq to get fouls on Greg Ostertag so Curtis Borchardt will have to guard shaq . They need to target Raul Lopez, he's a rookie going up against a great defender in Gary Payton and he should crack under the defensive pressure. He's also quite small and Payton should get around him easily. The Lakers could put Gary Payton in the post against him and draw Andrei Kirilenko out to the perimeter so Payton wont get blocked. There isn't much they need to do apart from target Utah's weaker player's with their stronger players and don't let Utah do this to them. Intersting note-3 of the Lakers players were drafted by the Jazz(Malone, Russell and Sampson). X Factor-How much will Karl Malone's abscence affect the Lakers and Andrei Kirilenko? Prediciton-Lakers continue home court dominance, but Utah put up a good fight for most of the game. Lakers by 15.
I hope the Jazz win, but they're playing at the Staples Center where they have not lost in a long time. They also have more firepower, but maybe the Jazz have the ability to surprise everyone again.
Every team is said to have more firepower than the Jazz but that doesn't stop them from keep on winning games.
But against teams with a lot of firepower like the Mavs & Lakers they struggle and normally lose, Utah are very good at winning games they should win which gets them into the playoffs. The Jazz will have a chance but they wont have one if Greg Ostertag doesn't step up.
http://www.nba.com/games/20031207/UTALAL/recap.html There's the recap, if only Utah could win those close road games against goos teams like Houston and the Lakers.
