Lakers at Jazz final score: Utah escapes with 105-103 win over Los Angeles
By Brad Rowland
It was an incredibly entertaining night in Salt Lake City, but not even a late push from the visiting Lakers was enough to steal a win, as Derrick Favors and the Utah Jazz escaped with a 105-103 home victory.
Favors had an incredible night at the office, scoring 18 points and grabbing a game-high 14 rebounds to lead Utah, but it was his put-back with 2 seconds remaining that ended up being the final margin of victory. The young big man from Georgia Tech has really made a leap this season after the departure of Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson (averaging 13.5 points and 9.0 rebounds), but this was one of his better efforts, and it proved to be enough.
In addition to Favors, Utah got big nights from Gordon Hayward (24 points, 9 assists), rookie point guard Trey Burke (14 points, 7 assists), and Marvin Williams (16 points, 7 rebounds) in what was a very balanced attack. As a team, the Jazz shot over 39% from 3-point distance, as well, taking advantage of that proficiency and a rebounding advantage (43-37) to generate additional points.
On the LA side, the Lakers scored the ball efficiently (shooting 50%), but their defense betrayed them yet again. Six different players scored 12+ points for LA, including an unlikely 19-point, 10-rebound effort from the little used Chris Kaman, and 16 points and 9 rebounds in just 23 minutes from Jordan Hill off the bench. As noted above, the rebounding issues hurt the Lakers a lot, but in the end, they simply couldn’t get the stops necessary to get a road win, even against the lowly Jazz.