LOS ANGELES — After starting out with a home-court win in their first game of the new season, the Utah Jazz looked to prevent the Los Angeles Lakers from accomplishing the same feat in their official home debut. But alas, the Lakers proved too much, coasting to a 95-86 victory Friday night at Staples Center.
The Jazz looked to get their first road win at the expense of the new-look Lakers who — like Utah — underwent significant roster changes in the offseason. The Lakers dropped their season-opener to the Clippers 112-102 on the same court Tuesday night, and were anxious to avenge that loss — a fact Jazz guard Mike Conley, who finished the night with 13 points, was well aware of heading into the game.
“We all know that going in. We all watched the first game. We know that they want to win their first game at home just like all of us do,” he said in the Jazz locker room before tipoff. “There is a lot of energy and a lot of emotion that comes from that and we’ve got to be able to match that intensity.”
Led by forward Anthony Davis’ 12 points, the Lakers grabbed the early momentum, building a seven-point advantage at the end of the first quarter. From there, Los Angeles built a double-digit lead midway through the second quarter on the strength of eight second-chance points combined with 15 points scored off a dozen Utah turnovers.
Neither team shot particularly well from the floor — with both well below 40% for the half. No Jazz player managed to find his groove, while Davis’ 17 points led all first-half scorers as the Lakers took a 43-37 lead into the break.
The Jazz entered the game without forward Bojan Bogdanovic, who sat out to nurse an ankle he rolled in the Jazz’s opening-night victory over Oklahoma City. Without the services of Bogdanovic, Jazz coach Quin Snyder inserted Joe Ingles and Jeff Green into the starting five Friday.
Green noted before the the game that guarding LeBron James would be a challenge and it would take a collective effort.
“(LeBron) is a guy who does a lot of things for this team,” Green said. “He’s a tremendous passer, can shoot the ball and get to the rim. You just try to make it tough. It’s a team effort to (defend him), it’s not just one person.”
James finished the night with a game-high 32 points on 12-of-22 shooting. He also dished out 10 assists and grabbed seven boards.
The Jazz came out energized early in the second half, tying the game at 43 early in the period before the Lakers went on a 9-0 run to take a 52-43 lead with just over nine minutes to go in the quarter. The Lakers extended the lead to 19 and finished the third period with a 74-55 lead.
Donovan Mitchell tallied 24 points in a losing cause to lead the Jazz.
After the game, Mitchell chalked up the less-than-stellar performance to struggles on offense that he believes can be corrected in relatively short order.
“We’ll figure the offense out, but defensively we’re really locked in,” he said. “That’s one of the huge steps we’ve made from the preseason, but we just got to figure it out. It’s nothing to overreact to, (it’s just the) second game of the season.
“We’ve just got to be able to make guys take shots. We’ve got to be able to go out there and shoot and a lot of times we pass up on shots — (we are) kind of hesitant to shoot and where to go (on the floor), where to be, and that just takes being more collected and being more together.”
Mitchell added that putting the loss behind them and focusing their energy on the next game Saturday night against Sacramento at home in Salt Lake City is the best way to move forward.
“They came out as hard and preseason. So I think we’ll remember that one and on top of that, like I said, it’s early, so for us we’ve got to use the back-to-backs and understand that this is just one game, but we can’t really do too much. We know we got to fix it and continue to build.”
Snyder said the team failed to execute their game plan in the authoritative manner necessary to compete with the likes of James, Davis and the rest of the strong Laker ensemble — lamenting the team’s 22 turnovers.
“We were just hesitant offensively and we didn’t play with a lot of force,” he said. “We just weren’t precise either. That hesitancy hurt us throughout the game.
“If you’re going to turn the ball over offensively, you’re going to make it harder on yourself,” he added. “We just gave them too many possessions and … it really bit us.”
Snyder said fortunately, there is another game to play right away to give his squad an immediate opportunity to get on the winning track again.
“That’s a good thing about the NBA. There’s 82 games and I guess if there’s a positive (about) back-to-backs, when you play tonight, you get to play again,” he said. “We need to come ready to play and I think we will and then we need to play better.”