The Los Angeles Lakers (2-7) face the Utah Jazz (8-3) today at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah at 7:15 PM PST.
The Lakers have back to back losses against the Utah Jazz and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Lakers had no excuse losing to the Cavs. They held a 12 point lead early on in the game and had a 6 point lead going in to the second half. The LA Lakers are arguable the worst third quarter team in the league, as that is the quarter where they seem to let their foot off the gas and come fourth quarter it becomes too late to come back.
Important Stats:
The Lakers struggles certainly have not been on the defensive end, they maintain the 7th best defensive rating in the league. They gave up 72 first half points against the Jazz a few days prior, that cannot happen again if they want to win.
The Utah Jazz are a perfect 4-0 at their home court this season. The Lakers are also yet to get a road victory.
The Lakers haven't struggled in the paint either, as they are 3rd in the NBA in paint points per game, scoring 56 PPG in the paint.
Anthony Davis has been one of the best defenders in the NBA this season. However, the offense needs to be running through him. He hasn't performed all that well recently. Davis took a total of two shots in the entire second half against the Cavs. He cannot be playing passive and needs to be more aggressive and keep that intensity the entire game.
Where the Lakers have seen their biggest struggle is their three point efficiency. They are a league bottom 28.3% three point shooting team. If they even want a chance at winning games this season, it needs to start by improving their three point shooting.
3 Main Keys To Winning:
1. LA has to limit their fouls. The main reason why the Cavs won was their free throw shooting. They got 36 free throw attempts and cashed in on 32 of them. Any Laker fan watching that game was certainly disappointed and/or frustrated about that. They also can't repeat what they did on Friday and give up 72 first half points to the Jazz again. That is unacceptable and they will have no chance of winning if they give up nearly as many points again, the focal point needs to be on the defensive side.
2. LeBron James isn't playing tonight, which means Anthony Davis, who is listed as Probable, needs to step it up BIG TIME in order for the Lakers to have a chance. Anthony Davis needs to be a major part of the offense today. Coach Ham even said earlier this season that the offense was going to be run through AD to take some stress off LeBron in his 20th season.
3. The Lakers MUST be able to consistently knock down their threes today to have any shot at beating the Jazz. The goal for today is to be shooting at least 35% from three. This is clearly one of if not the most critical aspect of the game that the Lakers need to improve on. If they shoot poorly, we can almost certainly expect a Jazz W today.
Injury Report:
LAL:
Anthony Davis - PROBABLE (Low Back Tightness)
LeBron James - OUT (Left Foot Soreness)
Lonnie Walker IV - OUT (Non-COVID Illness)
Patrick Beverly - OUT (Non-COVID Illness)
Thomas Bryant - OUT (Thumb)
Dennis Schroder - OUT (Thumb)
UTA:
Jarred Vanderbilt - Questionable (Right Adductor Soreness)
Leandro Bolmaro - OUT (Conditioning)
Major Concerns:
There is a big concern about the roster that has been put around AD and LeBron, and GM Rob Pelinka is the man in charge of that. Lakers staff reportedly said they would wait at least 20 games with this current roster before considering any moves, so Laker fans, it may be quite some time before you see any kind of roster changes.
Game Odds:
LAL: +120, UTA: -146 (Odds/ML Picks Official as of 11/06/22)
Game Prediction:
Especially with LeBron out tonight, the Lakers are almost certainly the underdogs in this game against a scorching hot Utah Jazz team. If the Lakers shoot under 35% from three, the Jazz are going to win. If they can hold their own defensively and have an efficient shooting night, then they certainly can win.
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