Shorthanded Lakers Overwhelmed By Jazz, Fall To 28

SALT LAKE CITY — Midway through the second quarter Monday night, the Utah Jazz ran a promo with two versions of the same arena photo: Jordan Clarkson holding the lead, dominating LeBron James and Russell Westbrook, photos taken four nights earlier in Los Angeles. .

the problem? Find the differences.

In fact, the biggest difference was that LeBron James wore a fringed jacket and jeans instead of jerseys. But many other details of this Jazz Lakers game were pretty much the same.

Utah (9-3) held off their visitors with a 139-116 victory Monday night at Vivint Smarthome Arena to continue their best and most surprising start to the Western season. The understaffed Lakers, on the other hand, continued to slump - going 10 games with a disappointing 2-8 record, just as they have been playing recently.

Lakers heavyweight Anthony Davis, who has looked particularly tepid in previous seasons, was particularly frustrated early on, calling it a "tough pill to swallow" and calling out the defensive efforts of the team.

"It looks like we've lost all our defensive power and that's what killed us," he said. “Being 2-8 is bad. We had enough time to win this game. We have enough strength to win every match.

Monday night suggested otherwise.

They've had solid performances from two healthy superstars: Davis led the offense with 29 points on 11-18 shooting, and is looking to get more involved after shooting just twice in the second half of Sunday's loss to Cleveland. Westbrook, who continues to play as the sixth man despite missing three alternates, got off to a hot start once again from the floor, finishing with 22 points and five assists.

But that didn't matter against a defense that couldn't stop the Jazz's offensive attack. For the second time in as many games, the Lakers were unable to slow down a multi-faceted offense that saw seven Jazz players score in double figures.

On Friday, they allowed 40 points in the first quarter, 75 at halftime and 130 late in the night; On Monday, he scored 41 points in the first half and 76 in the first for a season-high 139 points. There are 6 and a half minutes left for the fans to leave the stadium.

Davis took over for the third quarter, making Laurie Markkan (23 points) easy at the basket. But he is worried about trends developing after a hot and defensive start to the year: "If we stopped communicating in the third quarter, we stopped helping each other."

The Lakers were at a disadvantage from the start without their best scorer in James and two main backcourts, Looney Walker IV and Patrick Beverly. But that backdrop does little to offset the Lakers' drop in the standings, which has them just half a game behind Houston in last place in the West.

Coach Darwin Hamm rose to the challenge despite a poor start to his first season as coach.

"It won't always be like this," he said. "We're going to turn a corner. I didn't come here to lose. I didn't come here to lose. But there's a process we have to go through in difficult times.

The encouraging part early on was that the Lakers were able to keep a reasonable pace with Utah. Jordan Clarkson (22 points) led the way early for the Jazz, but the Lakers had an elusive finish on Davis at the rim and even a pair of first-half three-pointers from Westbrook (who has been a deep shooter since coming off the bench).

He collapsed in the third quarter, with the Lakers winning by 12 points. They scored just 18 points in the fourth quarter and spent the last 6 minutes of the game on the bench. The Jazz shot 56.4 percent on the night, including 17 of 22 from 3-point range.

Davis didn't fully justify the concern over the delay. After going 9-for-12 in the first half, he went 2-for-6 in the second half (although he also had six free throws in the second half).

Utah's offense was so constant that almost everyone who played had a chance to shine. That includes Tallinn Horton Tucker, the Lakers' August trade, who brought the arena to its feet with a third-quarter poster over Damion Jones. Lakers shortstop Patrick Beverly missed his second straight game due to illness.