Lakers-Jazz: No Clanks, Please

I heard the silliest thing from a radio reporter on ESPN’s Los Angeles affiliate. He said he wasn’t concerned that the Utah Jazz outrebounded the Lakers by a huge 58-41 margin and had 25 offensive rebounds to only 8 for the Lakers.

No, he wasn’t concerned at all. I guess I’m one of the few who is getting all "clanked" up about it.

He figured that Utah’s poor shooting (38%) was the cause of the disparity. According to this media mastermind, the shots were so bad that they were "clanking" off the backboard and the rim and bouncing all over the place past the Lakers and into the waiting hands of Jazz rebounders.

What he and so many other media homers in Los Angeles failed to recognize was the fact that the Jazz were severely outpositioning the Lakers.

Mehmet Okur, Carlos Boozer and AK47 (Andrei Kirilenko) were having their way under the boards with the Lakers front court of Gasol, Odom, Radmanovic, Walton, and Turiaf.

No matter who was on that Laker front line, the Jazz rebounders would move them around at will. It looked as though Spike Lee were directing a movie from courtside.

"To the left, Pau. Now over another step, please. Right there! Now hold your mark. And Lamar, take two steps to the right. Good. Now one giant step back, and Carlos, step in front of Lamar. Perfect!"

Yikes! What is going on here?

This is nothing new for Utah. This is their game; it’s the way they play. They get very physical at both ends of the court. They shoulder and elbow. They use their hips and torsos, their upper arms and legs to push you under the basket where the only thing you can catch is a made field goal. Or they shove you the other way so they are in position to get the put back, which they did countless times on Sunday.

Each time down the court, the Jazz get more and more physical to see just how much they can push and shove you before a referee blows the whistle.

And that turned out to be quite a lot on Sunday.

Only when the Jazz front liners got their hands visibly on a Laker did the officials call a foul. As long as they kept their hands in, they could do anything they wanted.

Again, that’s nothing new. It’s pure Jerry Sloan.

Instead of complaining about it like Pau Gasol did too often on Sunday, the Lakers have to toughen up and deal with it. Gasol didn’t like the physical play one bit.

Too bad, Pau. Accept it and take your game to another level like Kobe Bryant does night in and night out. That’s why he is the MVP. He accepts the hard contact and plays through it. He has that ‘I’m going to the basket, so just try and stop me’ mentality.

And he either scores or gets to the foul line.

This isn’t the European League, where officials call infractions for the slightest contact.

This the NBA. So, don’t expect the call. Instead, fight through the contact and battle for that rebound.

The Jazz depend on their physicality and strong rebounding to get off those second and third chance shots. Stop them cold and you can sweep the series.

If you don’t stop them, it won’t be long before Williams and Kirilenko find their range. And don’t count on Boozer to continually miss those chip shots like Carmelo Anthony did in Denver.

And Lamar Odom can no longer disappear for long stretches. He needs to get in there and help out Gasol on the boards. The Lakers don’t need Odom’s scoring as much as they need his rebounding.

The other problem that all that "clanking" uncovered was the fact that Deron Williams, a point guard, had nine rebounds, which was as many as Gasol had for the Lakers.

The Lakers back court, especially Derek Fisher, did a nice job of cutting down Williams’ point production. Now they need to work on cutting off his rebounding.

So, I may be one of the few in the Los Angeles media who is getting all "clanked" up over the rebounding deficit. But if the Lakers are to avoid an upset and make short work of the Jazz, they need to work as well as a unit on the defensive end as they do on the offensive end, where they excel.