Utah runs the PNR to death. Something that has more to do with us rather than them. Many teams run this but the “under” man is not as big and as excellent as DWill. So this is a problem. We will need to address this or else Utah is going to the WCF for the second straight year.

Guys, Utah is a type A team. Otherwise, why the heck are they in these playoffs (and the WCF last year) if they aren’t. However, to our delight, we are a type A+ team. Without Drew, we are a tad behind what we would like to be but as is, we are a better team and we have the home court. To say we will “cruise” against Utah is to be overly cocky and not optimistic. But again, as Emma inquires about, is it blind’s faith?

The answer is no.

Game 1/4 was at the start of the season at LA. Highlights include Andrew Bynum showing up for 15/9 off the bench. Kobe scored 33-5-3-3-2 with 5 TOs on 13/19 shooting. Boozer had 23/12 while Deron had 26/5 dimes. Lakers won by 10.

Game 2/4 was at Salt Lake. Boozer and Okur are absent but Utah countered with AK47′s triple double of 20-11-11-6-4. Naturally, we won’t be seeing this from AK since Booze and Okur are expected to suit up. Deron was his usual monstrous self scoring 35pts on 14/24 clip. Kobe had 28-4-3 but the Lakers were outrebounded 48-34. Utah claims this by 24.

Game 3/4 was played at Staples with the Lakers winning in 3 quarters. This was Phil Jackson’s milestone tying Red Auerbach’s win record. Kobe totaled 31-4-7 while resting the whole of the 4th quarter. The final score lead was 14pts but the Jazz outscored the Lakers 35-17 in the 4th. The winning margin was 32 at the end of the 3rd. Trevor Ariza was in this game and we held Deron Williams to only 6pts. Hmmmmm.

Game 4/4 had plenty of meaning. Utah was white hot at home thus securing the playoff berth at 4th. But the Lakers had other plans other than extending their home win streak. Lakeshow beat this Utah team WITHOUT Drew, WITHOUT Trevor and WITHOUT Pau ON THE ROAD. Lamar Odom showcased this game with a 21-12-6 performance beside Kobe’s 27-8-7. Deron tallied 26-7-12 and Boozer had 23-15 in the losing effort.

If you ask me, the Lakers consistently beat Utah convincingly this year, all 4 games without PAU, all but one win without Trevor and Drew. Kobe gets MVP-like numbers when playing against them with an average of 30-6-5 on these 4 games, having played only 15 quarters.

The interesting fact is Jordan Farmar’s strong play against this team. He is averaging 15ppg against the Jazz.

SA is a whole another matter though….

Denver is a very talented collection of players (how about J.R. Smith, huh?), but either Karl can’t coach, or his players can’t listen, and no, those two aren’t the same thing. The result is a weak playoff team.

Jackson: “That’s always the game plan.”

What we need to understand about Utah is 3 fold. They may not be a strong defensive team, but they are a physical team. They lead the league in fouls every year. The Lakers are going to have to play through that physicality and get used to not getting every call, especially when we play in Utah. Refs get intimidated by that crowd. Phil knows this too, he mentions it every year we go to Utah. Utah is also extremely talented on offense. They have a diverse attack with a lot of weapons that can hurt you. Williams, Boozer, Okur, AK47, Korver, Millsap, Harpring, Brewer….all these guys can get Utah buckets and do it in diverse enough ways that our defense will be tested. Utah is a disciplined team on offense and the run motion sets…so while we got used to playing pretty good defense against Denver’s Iso sets, we will have a significantly more difficult challenge putting the clamps on Utah’s attack. Also, have we really improved our P&R defense? We will find out this series. The P&R is the staple of the Utah offense and they can score off it in a variety of ways. Williams can shoot the J or drive the hole. Boozer can roll on a dive cut, pop out and shoot the midrange J, or slip the screen and either dive hard or stop short for a lane jumper. Basically, we are going to have our hands full.

Have we tradtionally beaten teams that try to outscore us? Indeed we have. But this series is going to be much more difficult than the one we just played. We are going to be facing a team that matches up with us well and has a deep enough bench where we probably won’t have a decided advantage at any one position besides Kobe’s. Utah is not a team that we can take lightly, look past, or think is going to be any sort of easy out.

I see Utah trying a similar defensive strategy with AK47 as KMart on Kobe. Using his length and size to keep Kobe out of the paint, allowing Boozer to stick to Pau and muscle him out of the offense.

As noted by True Hoops Portland also got sweeped by the Lakers in 2000-01 by the Lakers.

Also the most glaring reason people should have known was Pau Gasol had been swept every year, and he led his Memphis team to 50 wins in 03-04.

You see this fake stats thrown out way to often these days and it is upsetting. When average fans have more NBA knowledge than people getting paid to have better knowledge something is wrong.

Anyways, I am done ranting.

Go Lakers!

Lakers beat Utah in 7 tough games. (One blowout by each team)