Los Angeles Lakers struggle to make shots in blowout loss vs the Utah Jazz

The Los Angeles Lakers visited Salt Lake City to face the Utah Jazz on Friday night, but poor energy, as well as horrid shooting, rewarded them with a blowout loss instead.

The Los Angeles Lakers were 23-19 heading into this Friday night matchup against the Utah Jazz looking to secure their 3rd straight win in a row.

Unfortunately, what they found was a blowout loss to the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City.

It was interesting to see how the Lakers, and more specifically Kyle Kuzma, would capitalize on his 41 point performance against the Detroit Pistons.

To start the game, it was clear that the Lakers were going to have to contain Donovan Mitchell, as he was used as the primary ball handler by the Jazz.

The Lakers opened up with a layup by Josh Hart but immediately gave up two back-to-back 3-pointers to Royce O’Neal

The Lakers were struggling to defend early and let Donovan Mitchell score nine points in the quarter on nine shots.

Mitchell was getting to the rim with relative ease and the Lakers had no answer for him early.

Kyle Kuzma, on the other hand, could not find any easy baskets as he went 0-for-4 in the first quarter.

Luckily, Brandon Ingram picked up the slack being aggressive early on, attacking the basket and going at guys like Rudy Gobert in the paint.

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Ingram scored 12 points in the first quarter to help the Lakers tie the game at 20 points apiece.

Despite the Lakers giving up another 30 point quarter to an opponent, a last-second shot at the buzzer by Ingram cut their deficit to 6 heading into the 2nd quarter.

Unfortunately, in the 2nd quarter, things weren’t even close as the Utah Jazz opened up a huge lead on the Lakers behind the stellar playmaking of Donovan Mitchell who was doing an amazing job running the offense for the Jazz.

Offensively, the Lakers could not buy a bucket as they missed 13 straight field goals at one point in the quarter.

Brandon Ingram stayed aggressive driving to the cup but was being met by the reigning Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert, every single time.

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The Jazz ended up going on one of those signature Jazz runs where it seems like everything is going right for them with Donovan Mitchell executing a monster poster dunk on JaVale McGee and a chase down block on Kuzma on the other end. You could just tell that things were about to go bad for the purple and gold.

Mitchell finished with 19 points in the first half while Kyle Kuzma went scoreless in that same timeframe.

After scoring the 15 points in the second quarter, the Lakers found themselves down by 21 at the half.

To start the 3rd quarter, it was more of the same.

The Lakers struggled to find any sort of offense and the Jazz stayed on the gas pedal the entire way.

The Lakers were shooting 34% from the field, 22% from behind the arc, and 62% from the free throw line.

But after Kuzma started to find his footing, after breaking his cold streak on a layup to start the quarter, the Lakers put together an 8-0 run led by Kuzma and KCP to cut the lead down to 12 late in the 3rd quarter.

The Lakers started to bring that energy that they were lacking the entire game and it looked like they were going to go on a little run.

But as usual, these NBA referees never want to give the Lakers a break and after a few questionable no calls, the Lakers were still down 83-68 going into the 4th quarter.

Other than Michael Beasley leaving the game in the 4th quarter with some sort of injury, the Lakers basically fell apart in the 4th quarter and fell to the Utah Jazz, 113-95.

Donovan Mitchell absolutely torched the Lakers in every way scoring 33 points with nine assists.

This was a game that Lakers fans felt good about, especially coming off of the win against the Pistons.

The Lakers were in the 8th seed going into this game and this loss didn’t help things at all.

It is crucial that the Lakers do everything that they can to avoid falling below the 8th seed before LeBron returns from injury. And with the trade deadline approaching, the Lakers will become more and more desperate to find a guy to bolster their lineup which could be bad news for some of the young guys.

The Lakers had one of their best shooting performances last game against Detroit and backed it up with one of their worst shooting performances of the season a day later.

The Lakers will look to get back on track when they face the Cleveland Cavaliers Sunday night on NBA TV.