Utah Jazz's NBA Cup hopes dashed in blowout loss to Lakers
Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
LOS ANGELES — The Utah Jazz's NBA Cup dreams died Tuesday.
And, honestly, they were dead before the first quarter came to an end. The Jazz were completely uncompetitive against the Los Angeles Lakers in a 131-99 loss at Crypto.com Arena.
Utah entered its final In-Season Tournament group game with a decent enough chance of winning Group A. All of those scenarios, though, started with a win.
It was clear early that a victory would not be coming.
The Lakers had little resistance jumping out to an 18-point lead, and maybe no one felt the lack of opposition more than Anthony Davis. The veteran big man had 11 points and nine rebounds in the opening 12 minutes — stats that only kind of show the Lakers' absolute dominance in the paint.
If there was a game the Jazz really missed Walker Kessler — who has been out for two weeks due to an elbow sprain — it was this one. Davis finished with 26 points and 16 rebounds in 29 minutes, and the Lakers had 76 points in the paint.
LeBron James had 17 points, nine assists and seven rebounds and barely looked like he broke a sweat in handing Utah its third straight loss.
As for the Jazz, they put up one of their worst performances of the season. The team's best player Tuesday may have been seldom-used reserve center Omer Yurtseven, who came on in the third quarter and at least provided a little bit of energy. He finished with 18 points on 8-for-11 shooting.
It was hard to say anyone else in a Utah uniform played well.
Lauri Markkanen struggled to just 10 points, Jordan Clarkson only had 7, and Keyonte George hunted a little too much for his shot, and struggled to a 3-for-11 night. Utah shot 25% from 3-point range and 39% overall.
After a weekend of going toe-to-toe with a high-powered Phoenix Suns team, it was a clear step back for the Jazz.
Utah dropped to 4-10 on the season and 1-6 on the road.
This story will be updated.
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