Utah Jazz: Lakers spoil Jazz home fun

Seeing that the largest deficit they have managed to overcome in a victory this season is 18, and they were down by 24 in the second quarter, there was ample reason early on to suspect Thursday was going to be a long night for the Jazz.

Indeed it was.

The Los Angeles Lakers rode All-Star Kobe Bryant and protected their advantage in the second half at sold-out EnergySolutions Arena, beating Utah 106-95 in the late-starting TNT-televised game.

That ends the Jazz's streak of consecutive home victories at 19, one shy of a new franchise record.

It also marks just the fourth loss in 33 home games this season for coach Jerry Sloan's 45-25 club, which continues a five-game homestand with Saturday's visit from Seattle.

For that, All-Star power forward Carlos Boozer suggested the Jazz had no one to blame but themselves.

"We just came out and started taking jumpshots a little bit, ran the wrong offense," said Boozer, who 3-for-7 in the first quarter but finished with a 23-point, 15-rebound double-double. "Then we started running the right offense, and started to come back a little bit."

The Lakers, in fact, did not leave without a scare.

Jazz point guard Deron Williams knocked down a 3-pointer and was fouled on the shot by Bryant — the Lakers star struck Williams, who had 26 points and a game-high 12 assists, on his right arm — with three minutes and 44 seconds remaining.

Williams hit the resulting free throw, pulling the Jazz to within eight at 96-88 — the closest they had been since the game's first five minutes.

Bryant, though, cleaned up his mini-mess, first dunking and then, after a Williams miss, throwing a no-look pass to Luke Walton for a fastbreak layup that made it 100-88.

"He can shoot the ball, he can take it to the basket," Jazz shooting guard Ronnie Brewer said of Bryant, who wound up with a game-high 27 points, hit 11-of-24 from the field and dished seven assists. "So, it's kind of hard to try to make him do one thing.

"There's guys in the NBA, they make shots," Brewer added. "I mean, he's a great player — so, that's probably why he's an MVP candidate."

The Pacific Division-leading Lakers, playing at the tail end of a four-game road trip, led from wire-to-wire while improving to 47-21.

The Lakers jumped on the Northwest Division-leading Jazz from the get-go, shooting 75 percent from the field (15-of-20) in the first quarter to take an early 38-18 lead.

The 38 marks the most Utah has yielded in an opening quarter this season, matching a total the Lakers put up in late December and New Orleans did again in late February.