What Went Right:
• Kobe continued his string of brilliant playoff performances, almost single-handedly carrying the Lakers to a comeback victory with 34 points, seven assists and six rebounds. Bryant did it on a solid 10-20 shooting from the field too.
• Luke Walton–a huge X-factor in the Lakers’ sweep of the Nuggets in the First Round–finally awoke again in Game 3, scoring 11 points to lead all Lakers reserves.
• The Lakers had eight steals, many of which came during the team’s final push in the last few minutes of the fourth quarter. Derek Fisher led the team with three steals, followed by two from Pau Gasol.
• The Lakers continued to get to the free throw line, making 30-37 attempts against 20-28 from Utah. Once again, Kobe led the way at the charity stripe, sinking 14 of 17.
What Went Wrong:
• The Lakers’ secondary options–Gasol and Lamar Odom–chose a bad time to disappear on offense, with the tandem scoring only 25 combined points, 13 by Odom and 12 from Pau.
• Turnovers plagued the team the entire night as the Lakers gave the ball away 18 times compared to only 12 times for the Jazz. Gasol in particular struggled with the ball, finishing with an uncharacteristic team-leading five turnovers.
• Carlos Boozer finally sprung to life for Utah, doing so in dramatic fashion with 27 points and a playoff career high-tying 20 rebounds to lead the Jazz in both categories. After holding the forward at bay during the first two games of the series, Odom and Gasol seemingly had no answer for the much more physical Boozer.
• After exceptional passing exhibitions in Games 1 and 2, the team’s offense went awry in Game 3, only managing to dish out 14 assists on 32 field goal makes. By comparison, Utah had 21 assists, led by a game-high 12 from Deron Williams.
• Once again, the Jazz won the battle of the boards, albeit by a smaller margin than Games 1 and 2 as Utah pulled down 35 rebounds compared to 32 for L.A.
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