On Saturday night, the Los Angeles Lakers suffered defeat for the second night in a row and for the fourth time in six games since the start of the 2017-18 NBA season.
This time, the Utah Jazz offered the lesson on the court with a 96-81 victory that began with a dominating first quarter that set the tone for the contest. The Jazz led wire-to-wire, and the first nine minutes of the game effectively featured Utah digging a giant hole and immediately shoving the Lakers into it.
Nine minutes into Saturday's game in Salt Lake City, the Lakers had only seven points and trailed by twice that figure. By the end of the first quarter, the Lakers trailed by 15 points and only had 16 points on the board. On the night, Utah's defense held the Lakers under 20 points for three of the four quarters, and a strong shooting night from Ricky Rubio helped Utah cruise to victory.
Rubio finished with 21 points on 6-13 shooting, including the Spaniard hitting four of his seven three-point attempts. In all, Utah played a balanced game with five players scoring in double figures, while the Lakers only managed double-figure contributions from two players on the night.
One of those two players was second-year forward Brandon Ingram, who scored 16 points on 50 percent shooting from the field, including 1-2 from three-point land. The lanky forward used all of his length to aggressively get to the rim and toss up skillful lay-ups over the likes of Rudy Gobert or simply slam dunk when the French center was not in the vicinity.
The other Laker to score in double-figures was Jordan Clarkson, who continued his hot start off the Lakers' bench. The Lakers' sixth man scored 15 points in only 20 minutes on the court and shot better than 50 percent from the field in the process. Clarkson looked dangerous through out the contest, but that early hole served as a handicap too great to overcome for the purple and gold.
The Lakers' starting backcourt of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Lonzo Ball particularly struggled, as the pair combined to hit only five of their 21 field goal attempts, including Caldwell-Pope missing all five of his long-range attempts. Ball actually managed to his three of his six attempts from three-point land, but the rookie point guard missed all four of his other shots and finished with more turnovers, five, than assists, four.
Utah Jazz rookie Donovan Mitchell outplayed Ball on the night, as the no. 13 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft finished with a game-high 22 points in 27 minutes, which set a new career-high for the 21-year-old out of the University of Louisville.
Also, Jazz power forward Derek Favors managed a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds in a typically solid performance that helped Utah improve to a 3-3 record, with all three of those wins coming at home.
Next, the Lakers host the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday night at Staples Center.
