The audience saw another strong performance on Tuesday night by the Los Angeles Lakers who managed to go up 2-0 in their first round series versus the Utah Jazz. The team around Kobe Bryant underlined their ambitions to go all the way to the finals with a 119-109 win at Staples Center. Only 48 hours later, the Jazz will host the Lakers on their home court in Salt Lake City on Thursday at 3:30 a.m. GMT.

The first half of game two looked very much like the first encounter between these two teams, the Jazz struggling on the defensive end of the floor and the Lakers getting too many open shots. At half-time Los Angeles was holding on to a convincing 66-55 lead and it seemed like Utah had absolutely no means to stop the Lakers offense. However, the Jazz came out of the locker room playing much better defense and slowly creeped back into the game. All-star guard Deron Williams had another terrific night, finishing the game with 35 points and 9 assists. Despite Williams’ and Boozer’s solid performances the Lakers were able to hit big shots whenever the Jazz came within striking distance.

Utah’s hall of fame coach Jerry Sloan was not pleased with the lack of defense once again. After criticizing his team for not playing ‘nasty’ enough in the series opener, it was the same issue down the stretch in the second game at Staples Center. Utah is in a very difficult situation now as they will have to win the next game to avoid going down 0-3. Nonetheless, they have proven to be one of the strongest home court teams in the league posting an impressive 33-8 home record in the regular season. Another bright spot might be the expected return of Mehmet Okur who left a big hole in the Jazz low-post defense in the first two games versus the Lakers. If Okur will be able to play it would also open up the possibility of letting C.J. Miles start instead of Kyle Korver. 

You can watch this basketball game right here on www.watchlivenba.com, the home of live NBA streaming.