5/9/1988
The defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers spent three days practicing defense. They needed just 12 minutes to use it and embarrass the Utah Jazz.
The Lakers won Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinal series, 110-91, yesterday by holding the Jazz to just 8 points in the first quarter, the worst output in a first period in playoff history.
"Our offense has always been our forte, with our transition game, but our defense dictated the outcome of the ballgame for us," said Lakers forward James Worthy, who scored 23 points.
"And we had better enthusiasm in rebounding, which eliminates second shots."
After posting the NBA's best regular-season record (62-20), the Lakers had a minicamp at Santa Barbara. They then eliminated San Antonio in three straight games in the first round of the playoffs, winning the series last Tuesday.
The Jazz, meanwhile, didn't wrap up their first-round series with Portland until Friday night.
"I think that the three days we had to prepare, and the fact that they came off an emotional game, meant that we had a great advantage," said LA coach Pat Riley.
"Ever since Santa Barbara, we've emphasized basketball and improving our overall defense. Having time to look at them against Portland helped. The defense was as good as we've had in a long time. In rebounding, we had a 10-1 edge early."
The Lakers outscored Utah, 24-8, in the first quarter. The previous lowest first quarter was 12 points, by seven teams. It was the fourth time in playoff history that a team has been held to single digits in a quarter.
The all-time playoff low was six points by Atlanta in a 1986 playoff game against Boston.
The Lakers took an 8-0 lead, with Worthy, Kurt Rambis and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar all scoring off offensive rebounds. In the second quarter, Los Angeles went on a 17-7 run over five minutes, ending with Magic Johnson's three-point play for a 43-22 lead.
It wasn't until then that Utah's Karl Malone, the league's fifth-leading scorer in the regular season with a 31.5 per game average, hit his first bucket. The Lakers led, 55-31, at halftime.
"Defensively, they really helped out and denied us our best spots," Malone said. "They bumped us. It was very physical.
Los Angeles, trying to become the first team to repeat as NBA champions since the 1969 Celtics, play host tomorrow night in Game 2 of the best-of-seven series.
Byron Scott finished with 18 points and Abdul-Jabbar 16 for the Lakers.
Malone, held to just three points in the first half, ended with a game-high 29. Thurl Bailey had 23 for the Jazz.
"This was the worst we can expect to be," Utah coach Frank Layden said. "We haven't had the advantage Pat had in getting his team ready.
"They're a far superior team to us. I hope we can make the series more competitive than it was today, but I'm not sure we can. I don't think we can beat the Lakers."
But Worthy said: "They really have all the excuses they need. They flew over here yesterday and played today. As with the Portland series, they will probably watch the films and be mad at themselves."
The Jazz lost the first game of their series with Portland before winning the last three.
4 comments:
Huge win for the green.
Can we hold serve at home?
Fat boy with 17 off the benh.
Shaungessy was right.
impressive win, i really hope we can, just so we can tell charles barkley he's an idiot for even thinking the green machine was going to get swept! Doc called sheed out and he responded! He has the skill set but doesn't always choose to use it! And rondo with 19 assists! Wow!
I'm excited for Friday!
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