Both the Los Angeles Lakers and the Utah Jazz are both coming off their first taste of defeat inside the Orlando bubble. Will the Lakers win their next game and keep their clean slate against Utah this season? Or will the Jazz finally upend the Lakers? Check out our preview of this game below.
The Lakers are still stuck on the 50-win mark, as they failed to follow up their win over the LA Clippers last Friday with another victory, losing to the reigning NBA champions Toronto Raptors, 107-92. The Lakers kept in step with Toronto for most of the game, but turnovers and a subpar game from their stars, particularly Anthony Davis, had the team struggling in the fourth quarter, which led Toronto to a huge breakaway run. After scoring 34 points against the Clippers, Davis only had 14 points on 2-for-7 shooting in the Raptors game. LeBron James, meanwhile, had 20 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists, but also recorded five of the team’s 17 turnovers. On the bright side, the Lakers have now seen Kyle Kuzma score 16 points off the bench in back-to-back games. The Lakers have defeated Utah in both of the two teams’ two meetings, so far this season.
The Jazz didn’t hit the right notes on Saturday, as they absorbed a 110-94 loss at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Jazz opened up their Orlando bubble campaign last Thursday with a thrilling 106-104 win over the New Orleans Pelicans. Both those games were considered road games for the Jazz, so this upcoming date with the Lakers will be Utah’s first time at Disney Land playing in a Utah-themed atmosphere. Hopefully for the Jazz, that will help them shoot better. They only drained 39.1 percent of their shots from the field against the Thunder, with top guns Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley going 8 for 24 from the floor. Mitchell did play well the last time Utah met the Lakers, albeit in a 121-96 home loss last December, scoring 29 points on 11-for-24 shooting with three triples.
The Jazz are 6-2 straight-up in their last eight games as the home team.
