Game Rewind: The Furious Fourth Quarter – Lakers 101, Jazz 77

Four quarters?  No, thanks.  It turns out the Lakers only need one as we saw in what was quite possibly the most dominant quarter by any one team in the NBA all season long.

You didn’t really think you could win, did you, Utah?

If we learned one thing tonight, it is that when the Lakers want to kick your ass, they can and will do so with extreme prejudice.  The Lakers basically sleepwalked through the first three quarters, trailing most of the way, but when the fourth quarter rolled around someone on the Laker bench flipped the switch and they came out like a team possessed.  The end result- a six-point quarter for the Utah Jazz.  And this wasn’t just a flukey quarter where Utah just couldn’t make a shot, they could barely even get a shot off.  The rabid Laker defense forced the Jazz into a staggering nine turnovers in the fourth quarter, including three shot clock violations.  By the end of the quarter, the Lakers were up so big and had the Jazz so mentally defeated that they turned the affair into an impromptu Harlem Globetrotters game via several highlight reel pass attempts from Lamar Odom.  All the Jazz could do was begrudgingly play the roll of the Washington Generals and even coincidentally appeared to be wearing the uniforms to make the transformation complete (seriously, ugliest uniforms EVER).

The real takeaway from this game isn’t that the Lakers still own the Jazz (which they do) but rather that the Lakers can dominate at any given time… if they feel like it.  Not to rain on the parade, but as impressive as that fourth quarter was, it is just as frustrating to know that they pretty much mailed in the first three quarters.  Complacency is always the biggest concern for a defending champ and that is exactly what was on prime display the first three quarters of the game.  Obviously no team can play at their top level all the time, but for that dreaded word to be seeping into Laker games so early in the season is real cause for concern.

• I like seeing Shannon getting a shot to play the point for extended periods.  He has been almost exclusively a shooting guard this year, but he did just fine manning the point and, more importantly, defended Deron Williams well.
• Sasha lives!!!!  He hit his only shot of the night, a three-pointer, and came up with two steals.  Definitely a step forward for the Machine, granted it is a baby step, but Sasha needs anything he can get right now.
• LO still scored in single digits, but give him major credit for the fourth quarter flurry.  He was playing like a man possessed on both ends of the floor.  He was dishing the ball like crazy and played a big role in the Lakers getting closing the gap on the glass.  If only he would do that all the time rather than one quarter every few games.

Lake Show Outtakes:

• Could someone please inform Ron Artest that he doesn’t have to shoot a fadeaway EVERY time he posts someone up, especially when he has two inches and 25 pounds on the defender?
• This game never would have been close through the first three quarters if Andrew Bynum wasn’t playing like a lazy piece of crap.  Utah dominated the glass in the first half, largely because Bynum just didn’t care about rebounding.  I counted at least three different loose balls that Drew could have gotten but instead he just stared at as it went by.  Someone needs to remind him that he isn’t even an All-Star yet so he better bust his ass every single night.  Someone like him only have four rebounds in 31 minutes is freaking pathetic.

Tags: Andrew Bynum, Game Rewind, Lamar Odom, Ron Artest, Sasha Vujacic, Shannon Brown, Utah Jazz