Recap: Utah Jazz Crush LA Lakers 119-86

Oct 16, 2014; Anaheim, CA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers gaurd Kobe Bryant (24) is defended by Utah Jazz guard Gordon Haywood (20) at the Honda Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Tonight I got to do two of my favorite things.  Watch the Utah Jazz win, and cheer against the Lakers while they did so!  Sure, it is preseason, but we all love beating the Lakers!  This game wasn’t even as close of the score looked, which is saying a lot considering we won by 33.

Let’s dig in to some thoughts about this blowout.

• The Lakers team was decimated with injuries.  Steve Nash, Nick Young, Jeremy Lin, Jordan Clarkson, Xavier Henry, and Ryan Kelly were all out.  Julius Randle played 11 minutes but goy hurt and was taken out for the remained of the game in the first half.

• The Utah Jazz should have won this game, and they did.  You always want your team to blow out a lesser team, because it shows they aren’t letting off the throttle.  There is nothing more frustrating than watching your team get beat because they are playing at 70%.  Looks like Quin Snyder will not allow that this year.

• Gordon Hayward was tasked with guarding Kobe Bryant most the night, and he had fun doing it.  Multiple times Kobe was visibly upset.  Hayward locked Kobe down.  Kobe ended with 27 points, but it took him 23 shots to get there.

• Enes Kanter had 8 points and 10 assists… in the first half!  Looking up 7 defensive rebounds in 22 minutes was wonderful.  Last year Kanter regressed in his rebounding, and it was purely because he decided to not rebound on the defensive end.  He was drafted for his elite rebounding skills, so hopefully this is a sign of things to come.  The thing that has me most excited about Kanter so far is his willingness to pass.  He is making passes that he did not even see last year.

• Derrick Favors is going to score 15 points a game this year, at least.  Our point guards are doing an absolute amazing job at driving and dumping the ball to Favs for the easy make.

• Rodney Hood looked pretty good in his second start for the Utah Jazz.  Rebounding has always been an issue for Rodney, but he finished with 5 tonight.  Hood had the best +/- of all the Jazz starts with +21.  This kid makes the right play, and should be fun to watch.  Read more about Rodney here.

• Trevor Booker looked spectacular today.  Up to date Booker had only attempted 10 3’s in his career.  Just launched a couple in preseason has opened tons of driving lanes for him.  We saw him pump fake the 3 today and go in for a nice hammer.  Fans will be blown away with Booker this year.  Great fit to be our 6th man.

• Dante Exum had the best game he has had as a Jazz man so far.  In 19 minutes Exum has 13 points on 6-of-6 shooting, 6 assists, and 0 TOs.  He looked wonderful, and showed why he was the 5th pick.  As a word of caution, beware that this is what we will see all year long.  Exum will have some bad games, and some good games.  Just remember the kid is 19 and last played ball against Australian High School players.  He will put it together, lets just not get over emotional on individual performances with him.

• Jazz only had 23 fouls tonight and cut the turn overs down to 14 tonight.

• Carrik Felix made his debut.  He showed great energy in the 12 minutes that he played.  His transition defense seems great, which is something Quin is preaching.  I think Feliz will beat out Dahntay Jones as the 6th wing.

• The most important thing we learned today, is not to get on Quin’s bad side.