LAKERS CLOSE OUT SERIES AGAINST HAPLESS JAZZ

After showing some competitive backbone in their hard fought game three win, the Utah Jazz rolled over in game four at home.  On Monday night, they went through the motions again in game 5 which allowed the Lakers to win 107-96 and finish off the Jazz 4-1 in the series.  The win was L.A.’s 12^th straight over Utah at the Staples Center and they eliminated the Jazz for the second straight season. They now get several days off and will face the winner of the Portland Trailblazers/Houston Rockets series. 

Kobe Bryant led the Lakers with 31 points, while Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol both added ‘double/doubles’.  Odom posted 26 points and hauled in 15 rebounds, while Gasol scored 17 points and grabbed 11 boards.  Trevor Ariza also scored in double digits, contributing 12 points to the winning cause.  Utah was led by one of the few players on the current roster that can be counted on for a consistent effort night in and night out, reserve power forward Paul Milsap who scored 16 points.  Deron Williams and Andrei Kirilenko each added 14 points, while Kyle Korver scored 11.  Carlos Boozer and Ronnie Brewer added 10 apiece. 

Lakers’ coach Phil Jackson had some gracious—if somewhat unjustified—praise for the Jazz in his postgame comments:

"I think we had a first-round opponent that was much tougher this year than we did last year. I'm not discounting the present Denver team when I talk about last year's Denver team, but we were able to kind of do what we wanted to do with them and were able to sweep them 4-0. I think it will prep us for what we have to do as we go along. We don't want to get ahead of ourselves."

Jazz point guard Deron Williams nebulously blamed ‘injuries’ for his team’s listless performance in the series, although the only real injury was a relatively minor hamstring strain suffered by Mehmet Okur that inexplicably caused him to miss two games of the series:

"Injuries kind of affected us and we really weren't able to ever get into a rhythm. We kind of headed downhill toward the playoffs and we just really didn't get the type of effort we needed to win a series."

What Williams didn’t say is something that coach Jerry Sloan referenced several times throughout the series—this Utah Jazz team simply lacks the heart, toughness and desire necessary to compete for an NBA championship.  They may have more talent and depth than the Stockton/Malone era teams, but nowhere near the ‘intangibles’ that make championship teams. 

The Lakers, on the other hand, clearly do have those all important championship characteristics.  The Jazz managed to pull within seven points in the fourth quarter, and this concerned Trevor Ariza despite the fact that his team emerged victorious:

"We're happy that we got the win but, but I don't think we're happy about how we won so we have to pay attention and stay focused on closing games out.”

It was a sad way to end the broadcasting career of Jazz play by play legend ‘Hot Rod’ Hundley, who is retiring after this season.  Hundley is the only play-by-play voice that the Utah Jazz has ever had, moving to Salt Lake City with the team from New Orleans in 1979.  Now 74, Hundley actually played six seasons for the Lakers during his NBA career.