The Los Angeles Lakers have their second-to-last game of the season on Sunday evening as they prepare to host the Utah Jazz, who are looking to keep their hopes alive for home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert and co. come into Staples on Sunday night likely facing off against Alex Caruso and the South Bay Lakers, but that doesn’t mean it will be easy.
The Clippers, who have clinched a playoff spot but not secured their seed, stumbled against Caruso and the Lakers behind 32 points, 10 rebounds and five assists for Caruso. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who is a free agent this summer, scored 25 points in support on a game-high 25 field goal attempts.
Caruso and KCP will likely be the focus of the staunch Jazz defense. Utah are currently in 5th place in the West, only one game behind 4th place Portland for potential home court advantage in the first round.
However, Portland is likely getting CJ McCollum back tonight and the Nuggets are resting Nikola Jokic when those two teams face off in Portland. So the game may be a moot point for Utah anyway, but they won’t know until their game is over. They’ll likely be motivated to keep pressure on Portland as long as they can.
