Game 4, Kobe & Bench Pile It On in Utah: Quarter By Quarter Breakdown

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It sucks that when the Lakers were presented with their first test of the 2009 playoffs (Game 3), we did not come through.

I know the saying is that a series does not begin until the road team wins, but with the Lakers such heavy favorites to make the Finals, I fully expected us to find a way to win Game 3, especially after we tied it at 76 in the fourth.

But, we allowed the Jazz — mostly Carlos Boozer — to bully us and push us around, reminiscent of our matchup with Boston in the Finals last year.

Pau Gasol was criticized for his “soft” play in the Finals, and I have to tell you, he was most disappointing to me in Game 3. The 80 percenter missed six of his 10 free throws and allowed Boozer to grab 22 rebounds to his nine.

We even let Paul Millsap — a great rebounder in his own right — grab 14.

When you go through a game that had 97 combined misses and 20 missed free throws, you would imagine rebounding might be important.

They out-rebounded us by eight in Game 1, which we were able to overcome thanks to our 56 percent shooting. In Game 2, the rebounding was even at 30, with both teams shooting very well — only the Lakers topped their 50 percent shooting with 60 percent. Game 3 was a different story. We somehow managed to shoot 37 percent by the end, but got out-rebounded 55-40, clearly costing us the win.

I talked about it in the beginning of my Game 3 analysis, that the Jazz held an advantage over the Lakers in the first two games in made free throws, offensive rebounds, steals and turnovers.

In Game 3, we had a slight edge in three of the four categories. We grabbed 16 offensive rebounds to the Jazz’s 14, to go along with two more steals (7-5) and six less turnovers (9-16). The Jazz did hit 18 free throws to our 16.

What was the problem this time?

We simply could not hit a shot, going 32-87 (37%).

How would we fair in Game 4?

Read the quarter by quarter breakdown of the game at Lakers101.com.