Lakers/Jazz - Game 3

The Los Angeles Lakers' two-point road loss to the Utah Jazz in Game 3 of this opening round Western Conference series showed us a few things: 1) the Lakers can compete on the road even if their play is sub-par (or in this case, horrific), 2) Lamar Odom is still a valuable piece to the championship puzzle and 3) Kobe Bryant is human after all.

The Lakers shot just 37 percent from the field (Kobe led the way as he went 5-24, including 1-10 in the first half) and 61.5 percent from the charity stripe; starting center Andrew Bynum nearly posted the same number of minutes as he did fouls: seven and five, respectively; the Jazz out-rebounded the Lakers by 15, held a seven-point advantage in fast break points and limited the Lakers to a mere 86 points, 21 points under their regular season average and 30 -- 30!!! -- points under their playoff average. Yet, with two seconds remaining in regulation and the Jazz leading 88-86, Kobe Bryant found himself with an opportunity to give the Lakers a dominant 3-0 series lead.

Lamar Odom played one of his best playoff games in purple and gold. Say what you will about L.O. but, believe it or not, this team has a far greater chance to contend for and win a title with Odom in uniform. The dude provides mismatch problems in any given game. Name me one other 6'10' player who can consistently go coast-to-coast with finesse and you can consider the Josh Hoffman Blog to be no more. Unlike many of today's players, Odom doesn't need to be option A, B or even C. In fact, he is often times most successful as option D or E. On a night when Kobe couldn't throw a pebble in the ocean if he tried and Pau Gasol struggled to find his rhythm, Odom kept a multitude of possessions alive by grabbing offensive rebounds -- five to be specific, 14 total -- and led the team in scoring (21 points) and the +/- category (+7). Simply stated: the Lakers don't find themselves in a position to tie or win the game without Odom's contributions.

All in all, the Lakers undoubtedly played their worst game of these playoffs and arguably one of their worst games of this season, while the Jazz desperately confirmed how and why they won 33 of their 41 regular season home games. An optimist would offer: "The Lakers took care of business in Los Angeles; the Jazz have done the same in Utah thus far." A realist would laugh and blatantly admit: "Kobe Bryant got one of his all-time worst playoff performances out of his system. The Jazz playoff bomb implodes in T-minus two games."