The Los Angeles Lakers had already beaten the Utah Jazz twice this season, so going into Utah on February 4 had to have the team feeling good.The Lakers were coming off a big win against the Denver Nuggets on February 3 and looking to win their fourth straight win. Kobe Bryant scored 26 points on 6-for-16 shooting (11-for-12 from the charity stripe), but grabbed just one rebound and had one assist. Andrew Bynum scored 21 points on 8-for-14 shooting and 12 rebounds. Pau Gasol had 24 points on 9-for-20 shooting and grabbed 16 rebounds. Those all sound like solid outings from the Lakers top three contributors, so how did the Lakers lose?
Well, let me see if I can break it down to some very simple factors:
The Lakers Scoring (Minus Bynum, Bryant, and Gasol)
Bynum, Bryant and Gasol scored a combined 71 points and pulled in 29 rebounds as a group; definitely not a bad game by anyone's standards. Still, 71 points is not enough to win an NBA game. The rest of the Lakers managed to pull together 16 points, including just 2 apiece from starters Metta World Peace and Derek Fisher. Those kinds of contributions from the rest of the team aren't going to help the Lakers improve their road record.
Poor Field Goal Percentage
The lack in scoring wasn't for a lack in trying. The Lakers put up 75 shots from the field and made just 29 of them - 38.7 percent. And the three-pointers weren't exactly falling in either as the Lakers attempted 14 but made just four - 28.6 percent. The Lakers did, however, manage the keep the game close - for the most part - by making 25-of-30 free throws; an 83.3 percent effort. I'm actually surprised that Bryant didn't take more shots. He took just 16 shots the whole contest; that's an average of four shots per quarter. The fact that he only had one rebound and one assist show he didn't spend his 37-minutes on the floor crashing the boards and creating shots for others; so why not take more shots?
Turnovers and Rebounding
It all comes back to the fundamentals that Mike Brown and Kobe Bryant were preaching about after practice on February 1. Making sure that you are boxing out and putting a body on someone is one of the fundamentals of the game that will lead to rebounds. The Lakers didn't do that and got out-rebounded 50-42. I know that isn't a huge margin, but in a game as close as this one was, for the most part, every rebound meant either one less scoring opportunity for your opponent or one more for you. The Lakers turned the ball over 13 times the entire game - that's not something that is going to help. Squandering away possessions won't win any team basketball games.
It was a close game that the Lakers lost because of some very simple factors. They will look to bounce back as they continue their road-trip on Monday, February 6 when they travel to Pennsylvania to face the Philadelphia 76ers.
David is co-founder of wrapupp sports blog where they post fresh content daily and present sports blogs and sports opinions - all with a West Coast bias. Growing up in the Bay Area, David is a huge supporter of all the local sports teams; the Giants, Athletics, Warriors, Sharks, 49ers, and Raiders. His one fault, admittedly, as many of his friends and family would say, is his love for the Los Angeles Lakers. Growing up, Magic Johnson was his favorite basketball player and he fell in love with the team. He chalks it up to, "Not knowing any better". Now his love for sports has turned just as academic as it is intuitive and he follows most all sports all over the nation.
You can follow David on Twitter: @officialwrapupp
Sources:
NBA.com. Lakers vs. Jazz Recap. NBA 2012.
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