Even sans LeBron, Utah Jazz can’t be caught napping against Lakers

The Utah Jazz overcame a slow start to defeat the Orlando Magic last game, but they better be more prepared with the Los Angeles Lakers in town on Friday.

The Utah Jazz just seem to have a thing for theatrics. Last season, they led their entire fanbase to believe that they were lottery-bound by going 19-28 through their first 37 contests of the season. From there, they defied the odds to finish the year 29-6 and earn the fifth seed in the West.

This season, they’ve been as up and down and hard to predict as ever. And Wednesday’s contest against the Orlando Magic was the perfect example of the kind of drama they’ve put themselves – and their fans – through. Utah started out pitifully slow, falling behind by as many as 21 points in the first quarter and by 17 at the half. For several disgruntled fans in attendance, it looked over before the break.

But then, a completely different Jazz team came out of the locker room. They look poised for action and ready to defy the odds yet again. And they managed to do just that, outscoring the Magic by 30 points in the second half to win 106-93. It wasn’t the easy way to earn a victory, but it most certainly was an exhilarating method.

Nevertheless, it’s undeniable that the Jazz were largely caught unaware and ill prepared for the Magic initially as evidenced by their sluggish start. That can happen when a team expects to win as I’m certain Utah did against a lackluster team on their home court. It would be reasonable to expect them to have a similar sentiment when the Los Angeles Lakers come to town on Friday considering that they are without LeBron James who’s recovering from a groin injury.

But if the Jazz are wise, they’ll make it a point of emphasis to not get caught napping against the visiting Lakers.

Earlier in the week, I considered this game to be a relatively easy win for the Jazz. Not only would it be in the friendly confines of Vivint Smart Home Arena without LeBron James, but the Lakers were also 1-5 in their first six games sans The King. It looked as if it would be a Jazz team that was playing quite well against a sputtering and banged-up Lakers team.

But, oh, what a difference a few days can make.

All of a sudden, the Lakers are playing some good basketball. On Monday, they defeated the Dallas Mavericks on their opponent’s home court. Sure, the Mavs are far from a powerhouse, but prior to that loss, they were an electric 15-3 in the American Airlines Center and the Lakers had looked terrible. LA followed that up with a win over the Detroit Pistons. Sure, Detroit isn’t much to write home about either, but the Lakers did topple them by 13 points.

And that victory came largely due to the heroic efforts of Kyle Kuzma, who is someone the Jazz absolutely can’t afford to overlook. He went off for 41 points versus Detroit on 16-of-24 shooting from the field and 5-of-10 from deep. What an outing that was!

In the last six games that Kuzma has played since LeBron went down, he’s averaged a whopping 22.2 points per contest to go along with 5.8 boards and 3.2 assists. He’s been the catalyst of the young squad without their best player, but the Lakers as a whole have shown some real fight of late.

That in and of itself should ensure the Jazz don’t take this upcoming contest lightly. But things got even more difficult as the injury woes continue to stack up for Utah. They were without Ricky Rubio, Dante Exum, Thabo Sefolosha, Grayson Allen and Tony Bradley in their latest contest. With the first and second string point guards out of commission, Raul Neto got the start and made some critical plays to help the Jazz earn the W against Orlando.

Unfortunately, now Neto has also been added to the injured list, meaning Utah will be down six players on Friday, including all three of their point guards.

This will require Donovan Mitchell and the rest of his remaining backcourt mates such as Royce O’Neale and Kyle Korver to shoulder an extremely large role. Joe Ingles may have to handle some crucial point-forward minutes as well to share the responsibility of running the offense.

That lack of a point guard, and lack of depth in general, will make life quite difficult for the Jazz. And with the Lakers suddenly showing some life of late despite not having LeBron, this could be bad timing and a bad combination for Utah.

Earlier in the week, I predicted a pretty easy win for the Jazz. Now I’m feeling a bit more skeptical. They’ll need to overcome their lack of players and hopefully resemble much more the team that came out in the second half against Orlando than the one that played in the first half if they hope to win.

I now expect this game to be a battle rather than a cake walk. And hopefully, considering that the Lakers have been playing well and Utah is so shorthanded, the Jazz will come out prepared and won’t be caught napping. If they can do that, I’m projecting a close game, but one that still ends in the Utah Jazz’s favor, moving them just one game behind the Lakers for eighth place in the West.

My Prediction: Jazz 101, Lakers 99