2009's first game played like a recap of the Los Angeles Lakers' season so far.
The Lakers slammed the Utah Jazz, 113-100, but not after letting the Jazz make the game out of the blowout in the third quarter. The Lakers led 57-43 at half time, but poor defense and uninspired play enabled the Jazz to close the gap 65-62. The Lakers upped the lead to 16 in the fourth until the Jazz roared back in the fourth. Thanks to key plays by Pau Gasol and Trevor Ariza, the Lakers ended up with the W and a winning streak of five games.
The box score will tell us that the Jazz played the boards better and moved the ball around better, but turnovers from the Jazz and 42 free throw attempts gave the Lakers the edge.
The highlight of the game? Pau Gasol does a Magic Johnson and ran a fast break, dribbled between the legs and shot a no-look scoop pass to a cutting Ariza for the jam:
Kobe Bryant led the Lakers with 40 points. The Jazz were without All-Star foward Carlos Boozer. The Lakers will also have a busy week ahead with four games slated.
Tags: Los Angeles Lakers
With this win against the Jazz, the Lakers have further improved their record against teams with winning records. They now have 12 wins (5 on the road) against teams above .500
ReplyDeleteThe Celtics have 7 home wins and only 3 road wins against quality opponents. The Cavs had the easiest schedule with only 7 wins against winning teams. Of the 7, only 2 were road wins.
Without a doubt, the Lakers are currently the best team in the NBA!
Details of this on my blog at:
http://lalakersnews.blogspot.com/2009/01/lakers-are-now-best-in-nba.html
Amen to that bro.
ReplyDeleteno kidding. that was awesome
ReplyDelete