Utah Jazz’s NBA Cup hopes dashed in ‘really tough game’ against Lakers
And, honestly, they were dead before the first quarter had ended. The Jazz were completely uncompetitive against the Los Angeles Lakers in a 131-99 loss at Crypto.com Arena.
Utah entered its final In-Season Tournament group game with a decent enough chance of winning Group A. All of those scenarios, though, started with a win.
It was clear early that a victory would not be coming.
The Lakers had little resistance jumping out to an 18-point lead, and maybe no one felt the lack of opposition more than Anthony Davis. The veteran big man had 11 points and nine rebounds in the opening 12 minutes — stats that only begin to show the Lakers’ absolute dominance in the paint.
If there was a game the Jazz missed Walker Kessler — who has been out for two weeks due to an elbow sprain — it was this one. Davis finished with 26 points and 16 rebounds in 29 minutes, and the Lakers had 76 points in the paint.
LeBron James had 17 points, nine assists, and seven rebounds and barely looked like he broke a sweat in handing Utah its third straight loss.
As for the Jazz, they put up one of their worst performances of the season. Jazz coach Will Hardy said many things contributed to the forgettable game, but they all stemmed from a lack of physicality.
“That was a really tough game, really from start to finish,” Hardy said. “That’s a really physical team. Our lack of physicality, in particular on offense, led us to have very sloppy offensive possessions, and when you couple that with not making really any shots … playing against that team in transition over and over and over again is difficult.”
The Jazz weren’t strong enough on drives and often bailed out at the first sign of contact. That ruined the flow of the offense and led to contested looks and ugly possessions.
“We needed to play our most physical game of the year and we did not,” Hardy said.
Davis’ game highlighted the struggles on the defensive side of things, too. Hardy wouldn’t speculate whether or not Kessler would have made a big difference; instead, he said it was up to the team to make up for disadvantages in other places.
“Whatever physical imitation we have in certain matchups from a size standpoint, we have to make up for with maximum effort,” he said. “We can’t afford to coast on the defensive end, because we can’t make up for it with just size. … We don’t have that right now. So everybody has got to really up their intensity.”
That intensity had appeared over the last two weeks; it was nowhere to be seen in Los Angeles.
The one bright spot in the game was the one player who did play with some force: seldom-used reserve center Omer Yurtseven, who finished with 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting in 17 second-half minutes.
It was a rough night for just about everyone else on the Jazz.
Lauri Markkanen struggled to just 10 points, Jordan Clarkson only had 7, and Keyonte George hunted too much for his shot as he struggled to a 3-for-11 night. Utah shot 25% from 3-point range and 39% overall from the field.
After a weekend of going toe-to-toe with a high-powered Phoenix Suns team, it was a clear step back for Utah. Utah dropped to 4-10 on the season and 1-6 on the road.
The one piece of good news for the Jazz: They don’t have to wait long to get back on the court.
“The biggest positive for me right now is we get to play again tomorrow and hopefully eliminate this from our brain,” Hardy said.
