Once again, the best bench of the regular season produced very little on offense, which resulted in the Jazz drawing level in the series 2-2.
For me, Jordan Farmar has been the biggest disappointment during the playoffs. In this series against the Jazz, Farmar his made just one shot from 16 attempts. This kid was shooting 46 percent during the regular season and averaging a helpful 9.1 points per game. Now he is averaging 1.4 points per game against the Jazz.
With news that Trevor Ariza could be back playing as early as Game Six, Lakers fans will be hoping he can be the one to spark the Laker bench and make it the force it was just a month ago.
The Lakers bench was outscored 29-15, and Sacha Vujacic was the only standout scoring 11 points, with 3-5 beyond the arc.
Free throws were also a problem for the Lakers, making just 14 of 25 compared to Utah's 37-45.
The Jazz got ahead early, leading 31-21 at the end of the first quarter. Deron Williams was the star for the Jazz and ended the game with 29 points and 14 assists. The Lakers fought back in the second and it was all tied up at 55-55 at half time.
From then on it was all Jazz until there were four minutes to go in the fourth quarter. With the Jazz up by 10, Mehmet Okur committed a foul then proceeded to argue with the call resulting in a technical, and this is where the game changed.
The Lakers carved away at the lead with Lamar Odom cleaning up a Bryant miss to tie it up with 4.6 seconds remaining.
The Lakers struggled in overtime, not sinking a bucket until there was just over a minute remaining. The Jazz just kept making their free throws and the game ended 123-115. Game Five will be in LA on Wednesday.
Comments (2) Add a comment »
from 5 days ago
disappointing loss. i thought the lakers were going to win it towards the end.
from 5 days ago
so did I. I thought Kobe would have played a bigger part in overtime. apparently he had back spasms.
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