Lakers vs Jazz (12/9/12)

You hear that?  That's the sound of thousands of "Lakers" fans jumping off of the bandwagon.

This franchise and fanbase is used to winning.  And this current Lakers squad is doing just the opposite.  The Lakers fall tonight 110-117 to the Utah Jazz at home.  The game storyline was almost identical to Friday's contest against the Thunder.  Lakers played well in the 1st quarter, got out played in the 2nd, came back in the 3rd, and then mounted a too little too late run in the 4th.  Every time the Lakers cut the deficit to 1, 2, or 3 points the Jazz answered with a hoop.  Give them credit for that.

Mike Trudell, the Lakers' reporter, noted the Lakers are 9-9 without Nash and 1-3 without Gasol.  Anyone doubting the Spaniard's influence on this team isn't watching the games.  There is just no offensive system being run.  They're not even running uptempo anymore.  All I see are iso's, post ups, and drive and kicks.  It makes the Lakers very predictable.  Teams can turn them over pretty easily which lead to easy fast break points.  Then they get their confidence going and become hard to stop even in the half court.

Notables:

The Good:
-3 point shooting was good tonight 54% (15/28)
-Great bench contributions from Meeks and Hill

The Bad:
-Turnovers (14). Broken record.
-Gave up waaaayyy too many offensive rebounds (16)
-Got beat up inside.  Kanter feasted in the paint whenever Dwight was out.  The Jazz had 50+ points in the paint.  Unacceptable.
-Like a billion missed layups

Overall, the Lakers didn't bring the overall effort to win tonight.  Utah was more physical.  I don't think I saw one loose ball that the Lakers recovered.  This team isn't good enough at the moment to play lackadaisical.