A trip down memory lane to 1988 -- the Utah Jazz take the Los Angeles Lakers to a second round, game 7

I always get extra hyped for games where the Utah Jazz take on the Los Angeles Lakers, even if it's just the pre-season. We don't expect to see a titanic battle tonight, but my Jazz life started with battling the Purple and Gold Showtime Lakers. It's always fun to look back at the "glory years" and it starts with a young, upstart team that didn't know they were supposed to roll over and die taking the fight to the world champs. One of the key points in the ensuing seven game series was that the Jazz WON game 2, on the road, in the Great Western Forum against the Kareem/Magic/Showtime Lakers. They then came out and punched the Lakers in the face in Game 3 by controlling the pace of the game and playing defense. You can minimize the talent disparity by making the total number of possessions in a game lower.

And that's what Frank Layden did.

The Jazz did fall in seven games to one of the best teams in the history of the sport. And that's okay.

It was a joy to see Stockton and Malone sweep the Lakers years later, but the pendulum swung in LA's favor three seasons in a row during the Deron Williams era. LA is on the downswing again, and we're once again the young upstarts.

And it's been 25 years since these games were played. But it's a fun time in Jazzland, and always fun for us fans when the team plays against the Lakers. I hope we show some fight and some bite tonight. These games against LA are worth double XP it seems, in the hearts of us fans.