Jazz Edge Lakers 102-100

Gordon Hayward scored 31 points and pulled down nine rebounds to lead the Utah Jazz to a 102-100 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center on Tuesday night.

In a frantic finish, Lakers guard D'Angelo Russell attempted a long range three-point attempt with one foot on the "C" in the Staples Center sign on the court and found nothing but air. Time expired, and the Lakers lost by two points due to the missed 26-footer.

"That last possession is on me," Lakers coach Luke Walton took the blame, after admitting that the play he had sent in with substitute Lou Williams did not anticipate Utah center Rudy Gobert missing both his free throws with 13.1 seconds remaning in the game.

Only trailing by two, the Lakers should have been able to find a better shot than launching a prayer from closer to midcourt than the basket. In search of silver linings, the loss did feature a standout performance from starter Julius Randle, who finished the game with 25 points and 12 rebounds.

Randle had bulldozed the Lakers into the lead, but a missed defensive assignment allowed Joe Ingles to hit a corner three-pointer with 21.6 seconds remaining, which turned out to be the game-winning final field goal of the contest.

Despite the missed assignment, Walton did not appear too downtrotten over his team's play. The Lakers had gone toe-to-toe with a playoff team that finished the night with a 19-13 record and only came up short by one muffed possession. And that was in spite of the fact that the Lakers only hit four of their 25 three-point attempts.

"Obviously, it stings; the players are hurt that we lost," Walton said after the game. "The message afterwards was [that] we played the most aggressive, in my opinion, defensive game that we have in a long time."

Walton added, "We're still going to make mistakes. It's just part of learning, but we were being aggressors and switching."

The coach may not have been smiling after the loss, but he pointed to the lack of three-point shooting and the team still being in the game until the end as proof of the improved defensive execution. Prior to the game, Walton had shared that the team would be working on defense in practice during the home stand. So, while the loss may have hurt in the short term, it should have only further highlighted the importance of fixing the problems on that end of the court.