Lakers struggle in loss to high-powered Jazz.
After beating the short-handed Utah Jazz on Saturday, the Lakers were unable to get past the Jazz in their second straight matchup losing 111–97. The number one team Utah Jazz were too much to handle with the return of all-stars Mike Conley and Rudy Gobert in the lineup after resting on Saturday. With tonight’s loss to the Jazz, the Lakers record moves to 35–23 keeping them in 5th place in the Western Conference.
Defensively tonight the Lakers effort wasn’t enough to stop the high-powered 1st place seed Utah Jazz. The Jazz are the number one three-point shooting team in the NBA and tonight they showed it shooting 45.5% from the perimeter going 15 for 33. Utah was able to finish with a game-high 52 points in the paint highlighting why they shot so high going 57.3% from the field on 43 of 75 total. Lakers head coach Frank Vogel spoke of the team’s performance tonight saying:
“Pretty poorly, pretty poor performance particularly on the offensive end but defensively not good enough either.”
The leading 6th man of the year candidate Jordan Clarkson had one of the best performances on the night for the Utah Jazz scoring a game-high 22 points on 9 of 14 (64.2%) shooting. The Jazz’s 33-year-old veteran Joe Ingles was another performer to have a huge production in tonight’s win. In 31 minutes of action, Ingles finished with 21 points, 5 assists, and 4 rebounds on 5 of 8 (62.5%) shooting from three and 8 of 13 (61.5%) shooting overall.
With Rudy Gobert coming back into the Jazz’s lineup tonight, the head-to-head between Andre Drummond and Rudy Gobert was the main focal matchup to watch in the second game of the series. Rudy Gobert got the best of tonight’s matchup, disrupting everything inside the paint as Drummond had an off night going 3 for 12 (25%) total from the field finishing with 8 points. The two-time defensive player of the year finished with a double-double of 14 points and 10 rebounds on 5 of 7 (71.4%) shooting from the field. Drummond spoke on his shots not falling tonight saying:
“Shots just weren’t falling for us, the shots we normally make. My shots especially, shots I normally make were just going in and out of the hoop.”
Drummond was asked about the presence in tonight’s matchup from Rudy Gobert and he replied saying:
“It didn’t, I missed shots. That’s really what it boils down to, he’s a great player and a great defender. His presence in the paint is always felt, but that’s not going to stop me from trying to take it to him every single time.”
In tonight’s loss, the Lakers best performer was the team’s most improved player this season 20-year-old Talen Horton-Tucker. In 28 minutes tonight, Horton-Tucker led all Lakers scoring a career-high 24 points on 8 of 13 (61.5%) shooting overall and 3 for 5 (60%) from three. Tonight’s 24 points for THT was the 3rd time this season he has led all Lakers in scoring and he notched the 25th double-digit scoring game of his career. Lakers starting shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope talked about the continued development of Horton-Tucker saying:
“He’s growing every day. That kid can score the ball, he can defend, he’s been learning and applying it to games every day. He’s like a sponge.”
The Lakers will now go on a 4 game road trip starting this Wednesday against the Dallas Mavericks and could possibly have star Anthony Davis back in the lineup for the first time since Valentine’s Day. Look for the Lakers to come out with a lot of energy this Wednesday against a 7th seed Mavs team to get back in the win column.