Utah Jazz: Kobe Bryant, Lakers eliminate Jazz from playoff hunt

SALT LAKE CITY — As usual, the Los Angeles Lakers eliminated the Utah Jazz from the playoffs.

The two-time defending NBA champions just did it sooner than they have in the past.

Add a playoff appearance to the list of things the Jazz lost this season along with resigned coaches Jerry Sloan and Phil Johnson and traded star Deron Williams.

With L.A.'s come-from-behind 96-85 victory at EnergySolutions Arena — where it looked like a Lakers' jersey convention was being held — the Jazz's postseason hopes officially came to an end late Friday night.

With that development, the Jazz (36-40) became the first team in NBA history to start 15-5 and to have a near-midpoint record of 27-13 to not make the playoffs, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

"It's disappointing," Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin said. "We thought we would have a chance to fight our way back in it. We thought we'd get things figured out to get back into the race, but it just never turned.

"And," Corbin added, "we never got enough bodies on the court to get a good run going. It's unfortunate."

It will also be just the fourth time in 28 seasons that the Jazz will not be a playoff participant.

Though his team has lost seven games in a row, Corbin said his players will continue to give it their all in the final six games of the wild, wacky and disappointing 2010-11 campaign.

"Number-wise, I guess we can't get in now," Corbin said. "But we're going to still continue to play hard, try to win ballgames and develop the guys. We're still going to create who we are. We've got to continue to play right and try to see the number of wins that we can get."

For a while, it seemed like the Jazz might pull off a shocker during their ESPN-televised game Friday.

Despite having an undermanned, injury-plagued roster — that was missing five players because of various ailments and included a D-League call-up — the Jazz put on a show for the fans in the arena who were actually there to root on the home team.

Utah even took an early double-digit lead — going ahead by as many as 17 points — and went into the locker room with a somewhat stunning 50-42 lead.

"I thought we did a pretty good job in the first half of really executing what we talked about doing before the game," Corbin said.

It wasn't the Jazz's traditional starting lineup, but the tipoff crew of Earl Watson, C.J. Miles, Paul Millsap, Al Jefferson and Fesenko came out and took it to the Lakers early on.