Finishing the season at 65-17 and clinching the number one spot in the Western Conference the L A Lakers are looking forward to facing the Utah Jazz in their playoff opener. The Utah Jazz on the other hand dropped 7 of their last 9 games and finished the regular season with a rather disappointing eight place and a 48-34 record.

Obviously, Los Angeles is the favorite to advance to the second round, especially taking into consideration the terrible road record of the Utah Jazz. The Jazz allowed 105 points per game (as opposed to 95 at home) and only managed to win two games versus teams above the .500 mark on the road.

However, one should not underestimate the capabilities of the Jazz team around all-star guard Deron Williams and Hall of Fame coach Jerry Sloan. Despite their disappointing road record they certainly have enough talent to play better basketball than the past few weeks and give the Lakers a run for their money. Given Mehmet Okur’s ability to stretch out L.A.’s defense the Jazz can hope to create space for former all-star Carlos Boozer to operate in the low post against either Marc Gasol or Andrew Bynum. Likewise, Lakers guard Derek Fisher will have a very hard time keeping up with D-Will, arguably the best point guard in the NBA apart from Chris Paul.

Despite the aforementioned favorable offensive matchups, the Jazz will not have a realistic chance to win unless they manage to contain Kobe Bryant. Averaging 26.8 points, 5.2 rebounds and 4.9 assists this season Kobe has proven many times that he can take over any basketball game when necessary. The Jazz might try to throw different looks at Bryant, but it remains debatable to what extent it will hinder Kobe from having a huge night. The other issue for Utah will be the depth of the Lakers bench. Besides the point guard position, Los Angeles has at least one player for any other position who could be a starter on a different NBA team.