Lakers Have Deja Vu Against Utah

For the second game in a row, the Lakers built a big lead against Utah Jazz but then needed to make it up after their opponent rallied at the end. The Jazz never led but the Lakers almost lost their 20-point advantage and needed some last-minute help to pull off their 119-109 victory and take a 2-0 series lead over Utah. Lakers’ Coach Phil Jackson simply wrote “14 mo” on the locker-room white board as a reference to the number of victories the Lakers need for an NBA title.

It looked like it would be an easy win for the Lakers (just as it did in Game 1) but the Jazz climbed 109-106 with 3:17 to play. Thanks to Trevor Ariza’s three-pointer the Lakers were able to breathe easy after the scare, taking a 116-108 lead with 33.9 seconds left. Ariza scored 13 points and handed out nine assists while Kobe Bryant had 26 points and nine assists. pau Gasol has 22 points and six rebounds and the Lakers shot 60%.  Game 3 is set for Thursday, with Andrew Bynum telling the Los Angeles Times, “Thursday’s a very, very big game for us. The calls are going to go a lot more their way because it’s their house. Their fans are going to get into it, and we can’t turn the ball over so many times.”

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