The Los Angeles Lakers welcome the Utah Jazz to the Staples Center tonight for their first official home game of the season after dropping the opener to the Clippers. The Jazz are coming off a 100-95 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder that was fueled by 32 points and 12 rebounds from Donovan Mitchell. But even though Rudy Gobert, Joe Ingles and Mike Conley combined to score only 19 points in support of Mitchell, it was Utah’s team defense that held OKC under 100 points and ultimately led to the victory.
Last season, the Jazz finished second in the NBA in defensive rating. With Gobert patrolling the middle, they project to be among the best defensive teams in the league again this year. LeBron spoke about Utah’s ability at that end of the floor and how his team will need to be smart and strategic offensively if they’re going to earn their first win of the year.
“One thing about this team, they are always going to be very good and very solid defensively,” LeBron told reporters about the Jazz in anticipation of tonight’s matchup. “You have protect the ball and be very strategic with your drives. Gobert is in there defending the paint, clogging up the paint. So you have to play a very smart game.”
LeBron added in terms of Conley struggling in his first game with his new team that it was the “worst thing that could’ve happened” for the Lakers. James does not expect the veteran point guard to be off during two-straight games to open the year–especially when it comes to his signature floater.
“I didn’t analyze too much into it because it’s the first game,” LeBron added in regards to the Utah win over OKC. “But they have the majority of their team back. They added Bogdanovic, they added Conley, Jeff Green, Ed Davis, but for the majority they have their nucleus back.
“They have their coaching staff, they have their system that’s been there for the last couple years. But I don’t really take too much out of one game. Conley struggled, he missed eight of his right-hand floaters that’s been money his whole career, but I didn’t analyze that too much.”
Tonight’s matchup between the Jazz and Lakers in L.A. will tip-off at 10:30 p.m. PT / 7:30 p.m. ET. It will be broadcast nationally on ESPN as LeBron, Anthony Davis and the rest of the Lakers look for their first win of the season against a tough-minded Jazz team that also expects to contend for a Western Conference title this year.
