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Utah 104 LA Lakers 99: All 4 of the second round playoff series have seen the visiting team go down 2-0 to start off the series. With Utah's win last night, they joined Orlando and San Antonio, as teams who were down 2-0 to come back and win Game 3 on their home court. It will be interesting to see if Cleveland can continue this trend against the Celtics tonight.
If Utah can win Game 4 and even up the series, I'm sure they will be feeling good about their chances to win the series. However, Utah is such a bad road team that I have a hard time believing they will win one of the two remaining games in LA and I definitely don't think they would be able to win a Game 7 in LA. To win this series, I think Utah has to win four straight games and I don't really see that happening but hey stranger things have happened.
Now as far as this game goes, Carlos Boozer finally showed up to play and was an absolute beast. After two very disappointing games in LA, Boozer finished this game with 27 points and 20 rebounds. I'm not really sure why Boozer played so poorly in the first two games. I checked out his Home/Road Splits and his numbers were almost identical.
Utah also got strong performances from both Deron Williams and Mehmet Okur. Williams finished with 18 points and 12 assists, while Okur had 22 points, 7 rebounds, and knocked down 4 threes.
Kobe led the way for the Lakers as usual with 34 points, 6 rebounds, and 7 assists. Kobe has not yet disappointed in these playoffs, as he is playing extremely well so far. Despite Kobe's strong play, he started off slowly in this one shooting only 1 for 5 in the first half but he obviously made up for it with his monster second half. Kobe's slow start is probably what had the Lakers trailing by 9 at half time and that turned out to be too big of a lead for the Lakers to overcome.
Another factor in this game was the free throw disparity not being as high between these two teams. The Lakers shot 16 more free throws than Utah in Game 1 and 27 more than Utah in Game 2. However, in this Game they shot only 9 more which covers the 5 point win margin by Utah. I would expect once this series goes back to LA, you will see that disparity between the two teams grow again. Regardless, the Lakers have been going to the free throw line way too much in this series and Utah is not going to win if they keep putting the Lakers on the line so much.
If Utah can win Game 4 and even up the series, I'm sure they will be feeling good about their chances to win the series. However, Utah is such a bad road team that I have a hard time believing they will win one of the two remaining games in LA and I definitely don't think they would be able to win a Game 7 in LA. To win this series, I think Utah has to win four straight games and I don't really see that happening but hey stranger things have happened.
Now as far as this game goes, Carlos Boozer finally showed up to play and was an absolute beast. After two very disappointing games in LA, Boozer finished this game with 27 points and 20 rebounds. I'm not really sure why Boozer played so poorly in the first two games. I checked out his Home/Road Splits and his numbers were almost identical.
Utah also got strong performances from both Deron Williams and Mehmet Okur. Williams finished with 18 points and 12 assists, while Okur had 22 points, 7 rebounds, and knocked down 4 threes.
Kobe led the way for the Lakers as usual with 34 points, 6 rebounds, and 7 assists. Kobe has not yet disappointed in these playoffs, as he is playing extremely well so far. Despite Kobe's strong play, he started off slowly in this one shooting only 1 for 5 in the first half but he obviously made up for it with his monster second half. Kobe's slow start is probably what had the Lakers trailing by 9 at half time and that turned out to be too big of a lead for the Lakers to overcome.
Another factor in this game was the free throw disparity not being as high between these two teams. The Lakers shot 16 more free throws than Utah in Game 1 and 27 more than Utah in Game 2. However, in this Game they shot only 9 more which covers the 5 point win margin by Utah. I would expect once this series goes back to LA, you will see that disparity between the two teams grow again. Regardless, the Lakers have been going to the free throw line way too much in this series and Utah is not going to win if they keep putting the Lakers on the line so much.
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