The Los Angeles Lakers left Southern California for a quick trip to Salt Lake City to play the red-hot Jazz on Saturday. They had lost three of their last five games, all of which were played at Crypto.com Arena, and they came into Saturday’s game in 11th place in the Western Conference at 19-20.
The Jazz came in with a 20-20 mark and were one spot ahead of L.A., and they had won 10 of their last 12 games while averaging 124.7 points a game during that span.
The Purple and Gold got some bad news before the opening tip when it was announced that LeBron James had been ruled out due to an ankle injury. Yet early on, it seemed as if perhaps they would pull off a surprising upset.
Both teams came out hot offensively, but the Lakers were especially hot, as they shot 62.5% in the first quarter to 50.0% for the Jazz and led 39-31 after the first 12 minutes. Los Angeles led by as many as 12 points in the second quarter before the Jazz chipped away at that advantage and cut it to 67-64 at halftime. They then surged ahead 85-79 just past the midway point of the third quarter and took a 100-95 lead into the final period.
The Lakers simply couldn’t get stops down the stretch, and they fell, 132-125. Despite having a healthy edge in free throws in the first half, the Lakers suffered through a parade of Utah foul shots in the second half. They committed a cluster of fouls in the fourth quarter that prevented them from regaining a lead and resulted in the home team going 36-of-39 from the foul line for the game.
They also lost this contest in terms of the other effort categories as well — they were outscored 27-14 in fast-break points and outrebounded 52-40, and they gave up 20 second-chance points.
The Lakers are now 19-21 on the season and are a full game behind the 10th-place Houston Rockets. One now has to wonder if they will even reach the play-in tournament, let alone make the playoffs and make some noise there.