8:10 - Good feed inside by an already penetrated Fisher to Gasol, who drives home the uncontested layup.

7:29 - Vlad airballs a three ball from 27 feet. As many of y'all have noted, the guy is often an all-or-nothing shooter in the extreme. For a guy whose marksmanship is often dead eye, he puts up a lot of wild misses.

7:09 - A strong block by LO on Okur not only robs the Jazz of a bucket, but works to eventually draw Boozer his first foul on a pushoff. 

6:33 - Gasol draws his second whistle, which will relegate him to the bench for a spell. But if you're the type who seeks out silver linings, it's that his replacement comes in the form of Ronny Turiaf. Not that I'm seeking to rob DJ Mbenga of PT, but his insertion could mean Ronny's still sick. The rotation resuming it's normal order is a good thing.

5:24 - Kobe goes baseline, then twists his way around to eventually face the bucket for a successful four-foot turnaround. The crowd predictably and rightfully gets a little nutty with appreciation.

3:23 - AK-47's drive to the bucket against Vlad Rad finds success a little too easily. Vlad's not expected to ever become a traditional "stopper," but as he showed against Melo, he's capable of making a guy work harder than that.

2:04 - Luke Walton misses a reverse layup, but two points eventually come after Ronny secures the loose ball, which flies loose again. The ensuing scrum leaves Kobe scrambling against Kyle Korver, with the latter picking up a whistle. Two freebies go down for Bryant, making up for the original miss.

33.5 - Absolutely awful foul by Korver, who reaches as the Mamba puts up one from behind the arc. Shot goes down, with Kobe's freebie following suit.  That rare four-point play, thankfully in the Lakers' favor this time around.

The quarter ends with Kobe missing a layup (with an arguably foul-worthy amount of contact) and a 25-24 Lakers lead. The Lakers' shooting ain't all that hot, but I'm expecting guys not named "Kobe" or "Bryant" to get going as they shake off the possible rust from a long layoff. What does concern me, however, is Utah winning the battle of the boards at a 14-10 clip. This Utah squad ain't the best glass eaters in the world, so the Lakers need to take over on that end. BK with the second.    

SECOND QUARTER:

Lakers open with Luke, Sasha, Pau, Turiaf and Farmar. Big minutes with Kobe and LO on the bench and the benches playing against each other. Two teams with very strong reserves. 

11:00 - Lakers are extremely patient, working the ball around, and it ends with Sasha driving on Korver, faking the little kick to Ronny, and going in for the and-one. He makes the bucket, and the Lakers are up by four. The key to the trip - beyond Sasha's good play - was the good ball movement. The ball went in and out, and the Lakers didn't force anything until the opportunity presented itself. 

10:14 - Offensive foul on Utah sends the ball the other way. I think they got Millsap for a bad screen on Sasha, who turns it into a triple on the other end.  Great start to the quarter for Sasha. 

Harpring and Walton are beating the crap out of each other ...

9:10 - Luke hits Sasha with a great cross-court pass over the defense, and Sasha makes them pay.  Another three. Lakers up 34-26. The seconds are doing a great job on both ends. On the previous trip, Williams though he had a clean dunk attempt, but he was stuffed by Turiaf at the hole.  Clean. The Jazz ended up getting the bucket, but they're putting up some very solid resistance. Very active.

8:29 - Timeout on the floor. 

The bench vs. bench matchup is a big one in this game, and thus far, the Lakers are winning it cleanly.

LO back in out of the break. Lakers up by eight, and Kobe getting a rest.

7:40 - Wow. Kobe just used Kirilenko, crossing him over and driving with the left hand down the lane, before using his body and still finishing with his right. Good choice too, because if he'd have gone with the left, Kirilenko might have had just a split second longer to block the shot. Instead, Kobe gets the and-one, which he converts.

6:03 - Timeout on the floor, Lakers up 41-28. A 16-4 run over the first six minutes of the quarter, and the Jazz is coming a little unglued. Horrible turnover in the open court (on an ill-advised floor-length hurl) leads to an easy Kobe-to-Pau alley-oop.  The lead is out to 13, and Jerry Sloan wants to talk to his guys.  Right now, the Jazz is getting out-everything-ed.  Out-passed, out-hustled, out-defensed, etc.

They come out of the timeout with better ball movement, resulting in a little Boozer pass to Kirilenko for a hoop. They needed that, for sure.    

4:00 - Great example of inside-out ball movement to get a shot from outside. Lakers move the ball, Kobe scrapes off Fish, then dumps the ball inside to Odom, who quickly kicks out to a wide-open Fisher on the perimeter, who had moved over a few steps over into an open space on the floor. Nobody moved with him, because the D was occupied with Kobe, then the penetrating pass. Fish hits the three. 

Great play.

2:44 - Lakers up by 13, 47-34.

The Lakers have cranked it up and put a burst out there that the Jazz hasn't t been able to handle. Very San Antonio-like - not the version that lost yesterday in New Orleans, but the ones that have won titles.  A four- or five-point game becomes a 13-point game, and the whole context of the game changes.  Now a Utah run pulls them to within six or so, instead of tied. A couple big pushes a game. That's what really good teams do. 

:38.4 - Nice play by Okur to get to the basket off the Boozer miss ... off the Okur miss. The Lakers need to do a little better work on the offensive glass, especially on Okur. He's hurt them there. The whole team has, really. Thirteen offensive rebounds allowed by the purple and gold thus far. It's about the only place where you can say the Lakers aren't getting it done. 

:23 - Easy call for the refs on Boozer, as he's nicked yanking the jersey of Odom when LO went for the offensive rebound. He makes one of two. Then on the other end, after CJ Miles makes a three, he gets caught napping and has to foul Kobe on the long bomb outlet from Vlad. He grabs the jersey, puts Kobe on the line, and he makes two. That's the sort of play that will get you in Jerry Sloan's doghouse really, really fast. 

HALFTIME: Lakers up 54-41 after a great 24 minutes of ball. They're really playing well, and looked particularly good in a second quarter when the outscored Utah 29-17, forced seven TOs from the Jazz, held them to seven FGs and two trips to the line, and shot 10 for 18 from the floor. Kobe is leading the way on offense with 24, but despite the lopsided scoring, everyone is playing a role. Pau's presence has been felt with 6/6/2, and a +18.  Sasha had a great stint to open the second quarter and finished the half with nine. Everyone is active defensively. 

Good work. They'll need a little more balance scoring the ball in the second half and beyond, but overall it's hard to find too much wrong with how they're playing right now.

THIRD QUARTER:

10:30 - Gasol's recovery of his own miss from point blank leads to a kick-out to Vlad, who puts up a shot from 24 feet. It's a considerably bigger distance this time around, but that doesn't prevent a Lakers shot from going down. With any luck, it's the start of some production from distance from Vlad.

9:15 - Great teamwork by Kobe and LO to create an easy layup for the latter. Kobe works Brewer at the top of the arc, then drives toward the basket, which prompts Odom to cut in the same direction. The dish to LO and a success bank off the glass later, it's another deuce in the Lakers' pocket. 

8:33 - Like I said, hopefully that trey ball two minutes ago is a sign of Vlad dropping better from distance.  Another bomb successfully falls on Utah's head, with Radmanovic pushing the proverbial "button."

7:18 - LO swats the living hell out of Williams' layup attempt, hand hitting leather loud enough that I can hear it one section up. The Lakers did a nice job robbing D-Will of any space to operate in the lane. 

6:41 - It ain't often that Pau displays what's often referred to as "Kwame hands," but that would be the case as he lets a pass from LO slide through his mitts and out of the paint. Kobe snags the ball and throws up a prayer to beat the clock, but it hits the top of the backboard and goes errant.  A 24-second violation, anyway.

4:45 - Yet another possession where Utah collects its own miss, then manages to capitalize. In this case, Utah grabs two offensive boards, both by Boozer, who cleans up Okur's miss and then his own to eventually make it happen. The Jazz is absolutely crushing the Lakers on the glass; 36-24 overall, with 18 off Utah's boards coming on the offensive side. You can only push your luck so long along these lines and expect a win.

2:11 - Nice job by Kobe both dishing off to Pau in the paint for an easy dunk, but setting up the Spaniard for a bucket he really needs. Been a tough quarter for Gasol, who previously missed a pair of layups and was 1-4 heading up to that basket during these 12 minutes. They need Pau to get rolling, so it's nice to see him take a seat on the bench (for Ronny) on a positive note.

:43.5 - Kobe gets called for blocking against Korver, his third infraction of the contest. Sasha would likely be coming in soon enough to give The Mamba a breather, but Phil opts to make the exit stage left come a little earlier. You don't want Kobe picking up a fourth with so little time remaining. 

After yet another offensive rebound surrendered (this time to Korver), Williams cashes in on a chance to hit from three. With a second left on the clock, Walton attempts the home run pass to LO, which amounts to a connection near the basket and should have resulted in a whistle on Odom's layup attempt.  Dude got mugged hard. But as it stands, it's a 79-72 Lakers lead. One thing and one thing only is really hurting the Lakers and that's their failure to prevent second chances by Utah. If they did a better job securing Utah misses, they'd actually be killing the Jazz. Can they make this one big adjustment?  We shall see, with BK in charge.

FOURTH QUARTER:

11:05 - Great pass from Walton posting up Harpring to a cutting Turiaf down the lane for an easy dunk.  Lakers lead goes up to 81-72. The Lakers have to keep moving without the ball. On the other end, the Jazz generates a good look of its own, as Harpring runs Walton off a screen for an easy look.

He then draws Luke's third personal, as Walton is called for holding him off a screen. He's not the most skilled guy in the world, but Harpring really does beat the hell out of people.

10:04 - Boozer picks up his fourth.

9:06 - Lakers up 83-74. Sasha saves what probably would have been an easy hoop by fouling Williams on the break, with Boozer wide open on the wing. 

8:46 - Gasol picks up his fourth, on a loose ball foul underneath, apparently going over Korver's back. All in all, this has been a very poorly officiated game, both ways. No flow in either direction. Sometimes they're allowed to beat the snot out of each other, then they mix in ticky-tack touch fouls. It's clearly getting tough for the players to figure out what they're allowed to do.

Fish and Kobe both return, Lakers up by nine with Korver going to the line, 1+1.  He makes the first. And the second. Lakers by seven.

7:36 - Turiaf sends Okur to the line - not really his fault, as Okur had a free run when Gasol bit on his pump fake - Ronny had to do something. That sits him down and brings LO back in with the Lakers lead down to five. Kobe comes back on the other end, and draws AK47's fifth personal. Close to a tie-up, but Kirilenko definitely fouled him. Brewer in for AK.

Kobe makes both, and the Lakers are back up by seven.      

Boozer sent to the bench after picking up his fifth, on a loose ball foul underneath, pushing LO in the back. That really hurts.  Both of those guys will be down for a couple minutes, and limited when they return.

5:50 - The Lakers play 22 seconds of great defense, force the miss on the long jumper from the perimeter, then give it back with yet another offensive rebound for the Jazz, who eventually end up with a Brewer layup.  If they could stick on the boards, the Lakers would be up by 15. 

Brewer with another bucket in transition, and the Lakers lead is down to four, 91-87.  Lakers call time out with 4:31 left to play.

4:20 - Out of the TO, the Lakers use some great ball movement to get a layup for Odom. Kobe with the penetration to Gasol flashing in the lane, to Odom cutting underneath when the defense brings the double.  Easy and-one for LO, but he misses the FT. The Lakers then give up yet another offensive board - that would be 23 for Utah, if you're scoring at home - and only escape without a score against them because of some good hustle by Fish, who beat Boozer to the floor for a loose ball and got the timeout.

3:28 - Kobe penetrates, gets into the lane and draws Boozer's sixth foul. That's a huge loss for the Jazz, which now loses that big presence inside. He leaves the game with 15/14/4. Lakers up by seven.

2:39 - Lakers up 94-87 with Williams going to the line for the 1 plus 1. The second half has been much more of the (Williams makes the first) slugfest that a) many expected and b) Utah wants. (And the second). Utah has done a nice job of cutting off the easy lanes, helping and rotating defensively, and making life hard for the Lakers. LA is doing a great job getting the initial stop, but its inability to close out on the boards has hurt them.

Gasol puts a Kobe miss back for two, then makes a block on the other end.  But in the scramble, LO picks up his fifth, knocking Brewer on the put back.  He makes one of two. 

1:25 - Gasol goes to the line after picking up the loose ball foul on Okur at the other end, on a scramble for the ball off the boards.  As an indication of how things have been going for him, that's his first trip to the line.  He misses both.  But before that, he made a nice little layup as he slipped the screen with Kobe, who fed him so quickly the Jazz had no ability to react. 

1:10 - Kobe to the line, with a chance to make it a 10-point lead - he makes one of two.

44.9: LO fouls out, but by now, it's OK. Lakers have the game in hand, and will win assuming nothing totally bizarre happens. 

Gasol to the line for some ice-the-game FTs.  Overall, it was a tough game for him, but he came up big over the last couple minutes. 

FINAL SCORE: The Lakers post a 109-98  win to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. It wasn't totally elegant, and the final score probably isn't indicative of how hard-fought the game was, but the Lakers used a big second-quarter push to pull ahead, and did enough in the second half to keep it.  The rhythm of the game basically disappeared in both directions over the final 24, thanks in no small part to some very oddball officiating. 

But in the end, they got what they needed. Most things were decent, but man alive did the Lakers get crushed on the boards. I mean, seriously.  Big area to shore up between now and Wednesday.   

More to come. 

BK