"The second unit, me and Gordon when we come in, that's what we have to do. We have to bring energy," Carroll said. "We're young and we're out there with a lot of energy guys. We made Paul and Al and them start playing even harder. That's my main objective, to just be the junkyard dog and bring a lot of energy."
As for his wild tone-setting sequence, which was reminiscent of Jeremy Evans' preseason highlight, Carroll smiled and acted as if it was nothing out of the ordinary for him — mostly because it isn't.
"It was just a play in the game I felt like my team needed," Carroll said. "I came down and fortunately made the layup and I just ran down. I wasn't going to let Kobe shoot. Like I told him … 'I'm going to foul out before you come back and kill us. That was my message to him.'"
Turns out, the Lakers went on a big run after Carroll fouled out. L.A. trimmed the Jazz's double-digit lead down to five and had the ball with about 35 seconds remaining.
Bryant, who shot 9-for-24 but had four 3-pointers, threw up a long bomb that just rattled out. Mo Williams then clinched it for the Jazz by making two free throws with 15.4 seconds left.
"Yeah, I'm glad he missed," Jefferson said of the shot that could've made it a two-point game. "That would've hurt bad."
NOTES: Power forward Derrick Favors was a late scratch after his plantar fasciitis acted up again in pregame warm-ups. He has now missed five games. "It just got sore again, so I just decided to sit out," he said. "It's not that bad. I just felt a little uncomfortable when I was out there. It kind of hurt a little bit, so I decided to shut it down." … The Jazz have two days off before hosting the San Antonio Spurs in a late ESPN game (8:30 p.m. tipoff) on Wednesday night. … Mo Williams had hit 13 free throws in a row before missing a freebie in the third quarter. His last miss came on Nov. 14. Williams is shooting 96.9 percent on the season. … Jamaal Tinsley carried the backup point guard duties for the second game in a row.
Email: jody@desnews.com
Twitter: DJJazzyJody
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Jody is a sports writer who covers the Utah Jazz for the Deseret News (yeah, rough life). He also writes about his fitness/health journey and triathlon exploits in his "Losing It!" column. He has been with the paper since more ..
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Great win but it was a win we should have gotten given how bad the Lakers are right now.
D'Antoni is not a great coach unless he has Steve Nash. D'Antoni owes Steve Nash alot of money because without him his career would be More..
The key to the team is AJ. Big Al is playing fantastic. A high number of players on the roster are playing with open ended contracts which expire. Carroll played at Mizzou and is playing at a high pace. He left it all on the floor and fouled out More..
Wow, where are all the whiners? Usually there are half a dozen comments here about why they were unhappy with this win. I think there are Jazz fans who would complain even if we won the championship. Still not sure why people think they have More..