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Game 1: Utah Jazz @ Los Angeles Lakers, 8:30 p.m MT..Game Thread

Yeaah Jazz. We may lose this game, but the absolute beauty of this season is an average of 1 game per 2 days... it's awesome. Non stop basketball-void fulfillment. A loss and we worry about the next game... tomorrow. Two losses, we worry about the next game... tomorrow. Awesome.
 
Dangerous? Please explain how the first game of the season can be dangerous.

We're notorious for not showing up at road games.

A completely depleted Lakers team might fight even harder to win knowing that their studs are out. I can easily see us laying an egg expecting to just walk all over this Lakers team.

Yes, it's a dangerous game. It's amazing what a few cute scrimmages and a few nice dunks do to fans who so easily forget how awful this team has been on the road and how inconsistent they can be. Not much has changed either, as seen by the game @ Portland.
 
This team? In my opinion we have never seen "this team" play a regular season game before.
 
Feels like a bad road loss where many a thing go wrong. Bad offensive sets from Harris. Some chucking from Burks and Miles. Too many bad decisions that result in turnovers. Too many (ill-advised?) fouls on Favors and Hayward. 104-89, Lakers.
 
No Bynum, who knows if Kobe plays, this is a different laker team also playing 3rd game in 3 nights. it's a win.
 
After Bynum and Kobe the Lakers have Gasol, an aging Artest and fisher (lol), and... no one,

You guys really believe that a injured Kobe, and a team with the only other threat on the court that night being Gasol can beat the Jazz on the 3rd game of a back to back to back?? Sure the Jazz have laid some eggs, but the odds are SOOOO in their favor to win its really more of a longshot for them to lose.

Jazz win.

Oh and BTW yeah the game thread sucks... way to start the season on a whimper.
 
Here's Vescey's take on the Lakers.

Lakers

“We almost have to be perfect this season,” Kobe Bryant said Wednesday night at dinner. “There’s little margin for error.”

His damaged right wrist that supposedly can’t get worse with game use/abuse, the team medical staff maintains (famous last words), fractioned that margin. This could get unsightly and unfriendly real fast.Lamar Odom was donated to the defending champion Mavs without receiving so much as a squeaky working part in exchange. There’s a conspicuous nonexistence of a bouncy, brainy orchestrator, like, say, Chris Paul or Chauncey Billups, to stage-manage Mike Brown’s revamped offense (as opposed to clear-it-out-and-let-LeBron-go-one-on-one) and stay in front of dribbling machines. Andrew Bynum is suspended for the first four games and operates on 25-year-old, four-time surgically repaired knees. Pau Gasol is in a flamin’ funk in the wake of nearly being extradited to Houston after contributing decidedly to two titles and three Finals forays in four seasons. And World Peace is finding it Mettaphysically impossible to shoot as well as Ron Artest did.

It sure looks like management is more interested in decreasing luxury tax debt — saving $17.8 million this season in Odom’s case — than winning it all this season, Kobe lamented.

“Hopefully, management knows what it’s doing and will provide us with our missing pieces,” Bryant said. “Hey, I’m just a player. I have no input concerning anything that happens here. In fact, I learned we’d hired our coach from reading it online. I can’t remember the last time I had a conversation with Jimmy [Buss, managing owner]. Occasionally, I’ll cross paths with Mitch [Kupchak, general manager] and we’ll speak for a couple minutes about nothing really.

“I’ve never known what’s going on. That’s why I went public [in May 2007] and demanded a trade. When it became obvious to me that management wasn’t trying to compete for a championship, I felt my only recourse was to embarrass [owner Jerry Buss] into doing it.” Hence the hijacking of Gasol from Memphis.

So, how do you think your team is going to do, I asked Kobe, who has insistently denied rumors he’ll demand to be traded. Expectations can’t be too high.“No, we’re going to be perfect,” he said. “I have a good feeling about how things are going to turn out.”


Read more: https://www.nypost.com/p/sports/mor...in_tough_uNdKkxa6q45w1dR2Hp07dM#ixzz1hfPdFTMm
 
....I'm just spit balling here, but I suspect the bookies will still have the Lakers as a favorite to win this game, despite it being their third in three nights!
first off CJ, Feliz Navidad! And second, if the Jazz lose this game... Then this team must have failed horridly. Our own fans put that bad of faith in this team? By a b2b2b, I wouldn't be surprised if Josh Howard can score 25 points in this game if you started him.
 
Still saying we beat them. 3rd game of a back-to-back-to-back will have everyone on LA exhausted. We just have to bring energy and play hard.
 
As a young team we could come out smoking hot not knowing any better, that it's the first game of the season, against the lakers and Kobe on the road. On the other hand, as a young team, they could be way in over their heads make young team mistakes dig a hole and be completely overwhelmed. This game will depend on how well Millsap Harris and Jefferson play. If they play well Jazz win
 
I think that the game depends most heavily on defending Gasol (think Favors, Jefferson, or Kanter) and slowing down Kobe (think a Hayward encore and maybe some psychological activity by Bell and then some unsuspected frustration from Burks).

Ebanks and McRoberts make for a tall 3-4 combination for the Lakers; I'm not sure that this is the time to try Millsap against them for very long (although those players are young); better for him to match up against Metta. I think that you want Hayward and Bell starting on the wing, with Bell on a short leash, and Burks coming in to annoy (and to receive a short lesson from) KB32.
 
One thing everyone has overlooked so far, is that the Lakers are going to be Jimmered the night before they play the Jazz. Can one recover from a Jimmering in 24 hours? I doubt it. They will still be reeling when they report to ESA. Easy win for the Jazz.
 
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