Jazz drop another winnable game, this time to the Lakers

The Utah Jazz were overpowered by the Los Angeles Lakers in the fourth quarter of Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. nightcap. The loss comes on the second night of a back to back and is the fourth loss in the last five games for the Jazz. The team played relatively well for the first three quarters of this game, but ran out of steam and collapsed in the final frame. For the Jazz it continues a troubling stretch where the team seems to be sort of floating and trying to get re-connected after having so many of their main players out for a time.

With the win, the Lakers snapped a three game losing streak and are back at .500 overall this season. LA is now 6-4 in their last 10 games. The Lakers were led by LeBron James who had 25 points and single handedly sparked his team to the comeback win. Fortunately for LeBron, he got just enough help from the supporting cast tonight. Russell Westbrook was 5-14 from the field and finished with 15 points and 7 rebounds. The Lakers bench also had a nice showing with three players in double figures.

Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images

The Jazz were facing a team without all-star Anthony Davis tonight, however, it is always tough to face a LeBron James led team especially on the road. The Jazz looked a bit lethargic at times in this game, no doubt after an emotionally charged win at Denver yesterday. But the disappointing thing about this game for Utah is that they had a good chance to win it after going up by double digits just before the end of the third quarter. Rudy Gobert had his usual stat stuffing performance with 19 points and 16 rebounds but guard Donovan Mitchell looked off tonight, scoring just 13 points on 6-19 shooting.

The Jazz will return home for a quick two game stand and will face the Houston Rockets next on Wednesday. Hopefully they can avoid another letdown like they have had so many times this season when returning home from a road trip. Utah is now 29-15 and tied with the Memphis Grizzlies for 4th in the Western Conference.