9:18- LO receives the entry from Vlad on the left block, turns expecting to see a defender... and he's all alone.  No worries.  He puts the ball on the floor, drives hard and draws the and-one.  11-6 LAL. 

Kobe is moving well defensively, but has lost track of Brewer a couple times on the other end.  Hard to tell if it's because he's struggling, or simply playing more of a center field type thing.  Once, he trailed Kirilenko under the hoop, and I'm sure expected someone to rotate over.  The Jazz is too good a passing team to leave guys open, though.  Something to watch. 

8:05-  The general consensus among fans is that "Utah sucks."  The Lakers, when they're not breaking down completely and giving up a dunk, are doing a great job in the half court.  Sort of an all or nothing type deal. 

7:40- Kobe dribbles Brewer down in the post, and no double comes.  He makes a little hesitation move to the outside, then pivots into the lane, elevates, and hits the jumper.  13-8 LAL.  He's looking very good on the offensive end right now.  Doesn't seem limited at all, though he hasn't tried to drive yet.  If the Lakers can find enough touches for him in the post, he might not need to do it all that much.  The key will be finding enough variety in the O if he's unable to pull all the tricks out of the bag. 

As of right now, things look good.  They're showing a lot of intensity on both ends, Kobe is getting good looks, and the Lakers are controlling the pace of play.  15-8 with 6:59 left in the period.

6:30- LO is doing a fantastic job on Okur, not conceding any space in the post and forcing Memo deeper out of the post.  Or further away.  Or whatever.  The point?  He's not getting easy looks. 

5:13- Vlad tries to make the kick save on the entry pass to Brewer, to no avail.  He makes up for it on the other end, though, getting the pass off the cut and turning it into a bucket.  19-12 LAL.

4:00- Vlad catches the ball at the top of the circle, jab steps, pulls back, and launches.  Me:  "Oh, that better go in."  And it does.  Bingo! as Ralph Lawler would say.  Then he comes back on the next trip, and hits one in the corner.  We might finally be seeing Vladdy come out of his slump, and just in time.  But I'm telling you, had that first one not gone down, I'm not sure PJ would have left him in the game long enough for the second one to fall.

Love the primal scream from Vlad Rad on the way up the court.  He's a guy in need of letting out a little tension, to say the least.   

2:52- 25-18  Lakers, timeout on the floor.  They're playing solid defense, at least when everyone sticks to his assignment.  Freelancing isn't really working all that well.  But everything in the half court is coming from the perimeter.  The Lakers are giving no space to either Boozer or Okur to work in the post.

2:19- Well, that was a horrible call.  Harpring basically backed hard into Kobe from one side of the lane to the other, then fell down.  Loose ball foul on 24.  Makes sense.  But PJ saw enough of that matchup.  Harpring would have no problem taking shot after shot on Bryant. Walton in to pick him up.  Good substitution.

1:13- 27-23 LAL.

SECOND QUARTER

10:40 - Ronny must have been caught prank calling all the refs before the series began, because the offensive called against him under the basket (tangled with Collins) was almost as bad as the ejection in game 4. 

10:16 - Farmar connects on a three.  Safe to say, kid seriously needed that shot in a big, bad, ginormous kinda way.

8:26 - After much scrumming with Gasol and Farmar each snagging each other's misses and absorbing a lot of contact,  Gasol eventually draws a foul on Millsap and earns a trip to the line.  Good things generally come from hitting the boards, and that effort to keep the possession alive is just what the Lakers need to do more often.  As of now, they're getting beat on the glass, offensively and overall. 

By the way, it would be an understatement to see that the refs are letting both sides play.  Lot of roughish type stuff attracting little in the way of whistle attention.

7:34 - Swarming team D (in particular from Fish and Sasha) around the arc keep the Jazz scrambling as the shot clock winds down.  Brewer eventually coughs up the rock and Kobe streaks down court, draws the foul against Harpring and sinks his freebies at the stripe.  Nice group effort to make the points happen.

5:53 - Time out Lakers, but not because the rails are on the verge of losing the car.  Quite the opposite, in fact.  The last three minutes have seen the purple and gold on a 9-2 run and Gasol's at the line courtesy of an AK-47 infraction.  One of two fall, pushing the Laker lead to 11.

5:26 - Beautiful two man game working between Kobe and Pau, shuttling the ball back and forth and slipping screens, until Kobe eventually threads Gasol with a sweet bounce pass for a chippie.

3:20 - Nice job by Fish of taking the ball inside a couple of steps, drawing a bit of attention, then spotting LO for an uncontested layup.

2:47 - Back to back turnovers for Kobe, once on a way wide pass he threw to Fish, then on a rock trickling out of bounds as he lost the grup.  That's ten in all (for the Lakers as a team, not Kobe) and it's a trend that needs a clamp down ASAP (as I type this, Gasol sends the ball out of bounds).  I don't have the stats available in front of me, but I imagine the "points off turnover" tally wouldn't please the coaching staff.

32.0 - Kobe racks a fast break layup courtesy of D.Fish's bulldog effort stripping Williams.  It took at least one floorburn to make it happen.

With just over a second to go, Gasol puts back LO's missed around the rim, bumping the Laker  advantage to the 61-54 clip it'll sit at during halftime.  There's a lot to like about what the Lakers have done tonight.  The 56% shooting.  15 assists in 24 minutes.  9 thefts.  87% at the stripe.  Unfortunately, Utah is only shooting 3% lower, in large part because of the often easy buckets they're getting off careless turnovers.  11 in all and most totally avoidable.  If the Lakers had taken better care of the ball, they could be up 15-20.  We'll see what happens in the third with BK at the helm.   

THIRD QUARTER:

Lakers start the quarter with a lid on the hoop.  Meanwhile, Utah has come out of the locker room strong. 

9:23- Kobe gets the ball on the right baseline, posted up on Williams, nad takes him to the hole.  Back to the basket, then to the hole.  THat was the closest thing he's been able to do all night that constitutes a drive to the hole.  He just can't put the ball on the floor right now facing up the basket.  That's the big difference in his offensive game right now.

Although on his way back up the court in open space, he was on his way again, and drew contact on AK47.

Lakers up 65-62.

8:31- LO's head has taken some abuse this year.  First the split of his head, I seem to remember stitches above his eye, and now his chin has been split open on that drive by Kirilenko.  It ain't easy to bang bodies in the NBA.  Kirilenko makes both, and it's a three point game.  Ronny in for LO, which means the Lakers will lose something on both ends, since Utah still has their starters on the floor.  They need to keep the ball moving.

7:50- Nice work from Vlad to drive and put down the finger roll.  That's a play he needs to be able to make periodically to keep defenses honest.  Then on the next trip down, he and Fish both follow Brewer on the switch, leaving Williams wide open in the corner, Vlad late in closing.  Someone screwed up there.

4:40- Timeout Lakers, up 73-71.  Not a good quarter at all thus far for LAL.  Almost every possession has been a struggle in one way or another.  Not a lot of flow, and as a result, all but two of their seven point lead has evaporated.  On the other end, they're trying to put some pressure on the ball handlers for Utah, but the rotations haven't quite been as sharp and as a result the Jazz have had some good looks.  They've actually missed a few.

This has turned back into a grind it out sort of affair, the Jazz have done a good job putting pressure on Gasol in the post, bringing doubles and triples.  The Lakers need to do a better job of providing him an outlet, and Gasol needs to get rid of the ball faster. 

3:55- Kobe goes strong to the hole and draws Okur's third foul. That's the first one of those he's had all night.

2:41- Timeout Utah, LA up 75-73.  As a group, they're just out of sorts.  This is something that worried me a little going in- it's not that Kobe is hurt, but since with a back injury, things can change almost minute to minute, it seems like the Lakers are just unsure of what they're doing.  Kobe is working as hard as he can, but he's clearly limited and has had trouble sustaining any aggressive play.

The Jazz have clamped down on Gasol, and aren't giving him the sort of space he had in the first quarter to distribute from the post.   

LO, it's worth noting, is playing a monster game on the defensive end.  Strong rotations, contesting shots near the basket.  Overall, he's got 15/10 and a pair of blocks.

1:58- Kobe gets the ball at the top of the three point line, and immediately tries to take Harpring to the hole.  He gets fouled on the first step to earn some FTs.  Over the last few minutes, he's started to become more aggressive offensively, trying to make his way to the hole.  He knows he can beat Harpring off the dribble, even at 70%. 

1:34- The Lakers clear out the right side, isolating Kobe on Harpring, and again he blows by him, drawing the and-one on Boozer.  He makes the FT and the Lakers are up by 4, 81-77.   

1:19- Walton sends Harpring to the line, losing him on the inbound and having to grab him on the way by.  Not a good foul.  Walton is struggling a little tonight, for sure.

Another great play by LO, drawing the charge on Millsap.  That's his fourth.

END OF THE THIRD: 81-81.

A bad Q for LA, who lose all of the seven-point lead they had at halftime. They only scored 20 points, and were completely shut out on the inside.  Gasol, who had 15/4/6 at the break, finished the quarter with...  15/4/6.  Unless Kobe can find more burst to drive and kick, they're going to have to figure out ways to loosen him up, post up 24, get LO down low, etc.  They can't continue to be a perimeter team. 

AK will have what surely will be an exciting fourth quarter.

FOURTH QUARTER

8:38 - Farmar's successful drive to the hole caps a couple of minutes with nice sequences for two guys who could desperately use them.  Jordan himself and Walton.  Farmar with the and-one drive (converted) and Walton over the previous 30 seconds, where his defensive, then offensive rebounds help set up Gasol for a bucket.

7:46 - Back-to-back good plays for LO coming while heading to the rim.  First, drawing the foul while backing down Harpring (his fourth), then on a dunk, set up nicely by Kobe.

6:53 - AK-47 bails out a streaking-off-the-defensive-rebound-and-dribbling-kind- out-of-control-Sasha by fouling him just as he might have lost the ball out of bounds.  The gift is converted into a pair of freebies, both successful.

6:13 - Nice give and go between LO and Gasol.  Odom, spread out wide along with his teammates, dumps the ball inside to Pau, who immediately hits the streaking passer with the ball before the far spaced D can react.  That's 20 for Lamar, who's having himself a big time game on both ends of the floor.

4:29 - Gasol does his part to stop a driving D.Will, rotating over to swat the point guard's layup.  Unortunately, the ball ends up in Boozer's hand, who ends up getting to the line at LO's expense.  But he only sinks one of them, making the overall sequence play out in L.A.'s favor.

2:43 - It's nice having Utah in the penalty, especially when a foul by Williams away from the ball sends an excellent free throw shooter like Fish to the line.  Both go down.

2:41 - I'm too far away from the action to know exactly what Sasha said just now to get that T, but if it was anything to a ref, I guarantee it wasn't anything important enough not to keep inside.  If, however, he was just trashtalking with Korver, then I have to wonder why the ref can't let that go.  Granted, Sasha could have been a little more aware of the ref being right next to him, but I don't see why it necessarily needs to be a criminal matter.

20.5 - Two big buckets from Gasol help create five points' worth of distance between the Lakers and Utah.  The second comes off his snag of Sasha's errant three ball.  BK thinks he shoved Okur to track down the loose ball.  I think Mehmet was doing a bit of thespian work selling it.  Either way, it's two points and we'll take both of them.

3.3 - With Kobe at the line, a foul is switched onto Kirilenko, which means a DQ and a trip to the pine.  For those keeping score, that would be his fourth foul out of the series.  I know it's tough guarding Kobe and LO all game, but that's gotta be discouraging.  Or it's totally cool, because he just believes in the notion that you can't take any home with you.

The clock winds down on a 111-104 Laker victory.  A rough third quarter may have prompted some well bitten nails, but a strong surge on both sides of the ball helped create enough space to put this one away for the good guys.  More to come in a bit.  Thanks for dropping by.