Utah Jazz: Is team prepared for Lakers?
And there is ample reason to suspect they may not be.
When the Jazz and Lakers square off this afternoon, it will have been just 38 hours or so since Utah polished off Houston in Game 6 of its first-round playoff series with the Rockets.
That left little time to pack, let alone prep — especially considering just how dangerous the Jazz consider the West's No. 1-seeded Lakers to be.
"They're expected to win it all," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said of the Lakers on Saturday, when his club used what would otherwise be a practice day to replace a morning shootaround that is lost because of this afternoon's early start.
"It creates a number of problems for us, obviously, but you just have to go play," Sloan said. "That's the way the rules are."
So the Lakers have gotten to enjoy most of a week off.
ABC gets its marquee matchup of Bryant against anyone.
And the Jazz dutifully accept their fate.
"It's just how it is," point guard Deron Williams said. "You know, we have no control when we play, so we've just got to get ready for the game. Hopefully the layoff hurts them."
The Lakers took three of four games from Utah this season, and in none of those did they have big man Paul Gasol — an in-season addition via trade from Memphis that has made L.A. a significantly more-threatening entity.
"He's made a huge difference for their team," Jazz All-Star forward Carlos Boozer said.
"They've had some pretty good gifts," Sloan said of the Gasol acquisition, which cost the Lakers relatively little. "You look around the league, and not too many teams get a chance to pick a guy up like that who's an All-Star performer."
Add in the fact that he's picked up the Lakers' triangle offense without a hitch, and offered a viable scoring alternative to Bryant, and the Jazz know they will have their hands full.
"They were playing the best basketball toward the end of the season, once they got Gasol back (from an ankle sprain) and they were healthy," Williams said. "It's going to be a tall task for us to beat them, especially with them having homecourt advantage. But we feel we can do it."
Williams says what he does knowing full well that the Rockets took Utah to six games, and L.A. has so much more to offer.
"They've got a lot more on offense — a lot more," he said.
"They're a good defensive team as well, but they've got a lot more on offense, a lot more to worry about.
"You know, you can't just really focus on stopping one guy," Williams added, "because Kobe's been doing a great job of getting everyone involved and making the players around him a lot better."
Recent comments
Don't you mean that the team with the bigger stars will win?...
RE: Conspiracy is old! | May 5, 2008 at 12:38 a.m.
Love the sour grapes...the true mark of the truly desperate. Enjoy...
Lakers 08 | May 5, 2008 at 12:02 a.m.
Jazz fans are sad?.....shoot, minorities are sad. I imagine if you...
People are dumb | May 4, 2008 at 11:47 p.m.
