Utah Jazz: Bryant's 38 points leaves Jazz 1 game away from elimination

Eyes down. Shoulders slumped. Head a-shakin'.

The body language said it all.

Kobe Bryant was the show Saturday night, and nothing Ronnie Brewer or any of the Jazz's other defender wannabes could do were going to stop him from leading the Los Angeles Lakers to a 108-94 Game 4 victory at EnergySolutions Arena.

The NBA's reigning MVP shot 16-of-24 from the field and finished with 38 points to put the No. 8 seed Jazz down 1-3 heading into Monday night's Game 5 of their first-round, best-of-seven NBA playoff series with the top-seeded Los Angeles Lakers.

"Some of the shots that went, I mean, you can't help but get frustrated — because what better 'D' can you do?" asked Brewer, the Jazz shooting guard who spent the most time trying to guard Bryant. "Anything else, you'd be fouling him.

"There was times where he pump faked, pump faked, and I'd be right there, then he drives and I jump to contest it, and he still makes it. So, I guess when you're on fire, you're on fire. I mean, he had it going."

Bryant had 24 points on 10-for-13 shooting in the first half alone, and 34 points through his first 23 minutes played.

"Kobe Bryant was spectacular," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan. "We couldn't get close enough to guard him, really. He just shot through us, over us.

"Whatever he took, he was very difficult for us to play. He just put them on his back, and got them off to the way they wanted to play."

The Jazz did lead by five after one quarter and by as many as seven three-plus minutes into the second.

But a 20-2 Lakers run that included both a jumper from Bryant and his steal from Jazz point guard Deron Williams that led to his own fastbreak layup squashed all Utah hopes for evening the series.

L.A. rode its 40-point second quarter to a 60-53 halftime advantage, and the Lakers led by double digits throughout the final 17 minutes. The Laker lead never got below 13 in the fourth quarter, and soared as high as 24 after a Trevor Ariza layup with 8:11 to go.

"A lot of it was just Kobe taking over," said Williams, who had a 23-point, 13-assist double-double to go with Carlos Boozer's 23-point, 16-rebound double-double. "You could see he came out on a mission."

Perhaps it was to atone for his 5-for-24 shooting in Utah's Game 3 win Thursday.

Sloan didn't doubt that was the case.