All that Jazz not enough as Lakers sweep series
It’s not the outcome the Utah Jazz would have hoped for but then again it’s an outcome that was not surprising as the LA Lakers once again knocked the Jazz out of the play-offs.
The Lakers jumped out to a 22-point lead early and never looked back, eventually winning 111-96 and advancing to the Western Conference finals for the third year in a row.
The Jazz just had no answer for Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant who scored 55 points between them and the Lakers used their physical advantage shut down Utah’s big men restricting Carlos Boozer and Kyrylo Fresenko to just a combined 14 points.
"With close-out games, you have a tendency to lose focus, we kept our concentration and paid attention to detail,” said Bryant.
Not even Utah’s superstar point guard, Deron Williams, was able to lift his team scoring 21 points and handing out nine assists. "We're a play-off team and they're a championship team. They're just better than we are.
"We all were discouraged. It was kinda deja vu, it's always hard to get down 10, 12 points against this team and try and come back,” Williams said
Playing without Mehmet Okur, who ruptured his Achilles in the first game of round one, and missing Andrei Kirilenko for the first two games against the Lakers, Jerry Sloan’s team found themselves in hole which was just too big to get out of.
And when a team like the Lakers committed just six turnovers all game, made 29 foul shots and missed just seven, the writing was on the wall for the Jazz and even the fans started leaving early as they sensed the brooms coming for the sweep.
"We knew they were a great team and I don't think anybody had us picked to beat them," Utah coach Jerry Sloan said. "We had some good moments and some moments that weren't very good."
The Lakers now will face the Phoenix Suns in the Finals and if the LA plays the way they did against Utah, the Suns might be in for a tough time.
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