Los Angeles Lakers vs Utah Jazz Game Thread

Since losing four games in a row in mid-November the Utah Jazz (12-9) have been rolling. They are 5-1 since then, are +66 and taking care of business. They head out on the road for one game before returning back to Salt Lake City for the next five. The one road game is tonight, at STAPLES center, against the resurgent, young, talented Los Angeles Lakers (10-12). It's not going to be an easy game to win, you can't overlook LA. Especially not in LA. Historically Utah hasn't won a lot there, they are only 21-65 against the purple and gold outside of the #801. Last season Utah went 3-1 on them, losing the last game of the season to some hot shooting alleged sexual deviant.

Anyway, this will be the second of four games between LAL and UTA this year. Utah won the first game, in Utah, 96-89. It's not going to be a cakewalk.

Game Preview | Overtone | Five Things to Watch | Video | Silver Screen and Roll

Before we go any further, man, this is what a bandwagon looks like:

Fan Map:

Team Breakdown:

Utah vs. Los Angeles

• PPG: 99.5 (25th) - 105.1 (12th)
• OPPG: 94.8 (1st) - 109.4 (26th)
• PACE: 91.1 (30th) - 99.1 (4th)
• ORTG: 109.2 (8th) - 106.0 (18th)
• DRTG: 104.0 (6th) - 110.4 (28th)

Utah plays slow, duh. LA goes showtime. Utah is the stronger club and is more efficient. On the four factor trend, the Lakers do a great job of hitting the offensive glass and get to the line a healthy amount. The Jazz are Top 10 in six of the eight offensive and defensive four factors. Awesome. One place where the Jazz haven't been awesome? They don't force turnovers, and they don't seem to get a lot of offensive rebounds anymore.

I think a part of that is, well, going "stretch small forward" instead of "two bigmen". LA isn't small. Hopefully we see more traditional ball tonight.

Presumed Starters:

• PG: Dante Exum vs. Bruh. Marcelo Huertas?
  
• SG: Rodney Hood vs. Brandon Ingram
  
• SF: Gordon Hayward vs. Luol Deng
  
• PF: Boris Diaw vs. Julius Randle
  
• C: Rudy Gobert vs. Timofey Mozgov

Injuries / Absences:

• PG: George Hill (UTA, ???), D'Angelo Russell (LAL, OUT), Jose Calderon (LAL, OUT)
  
• SG: Nick Young (LAL, OUT), Alec Burks (UTA, OUT)
  
• SF:
• PF: Derrick Favors (UTA, OUT), Larry Nance Jr. (LAL, Questionable)
  
• C: Ivica Zubac (LAL, D-League)

GO JAZZ GO!