Home sweet home. The Jazz finally provided the Lakers with their first loss of the playoffs. It took the home crowd, an excellent performance from the big three (Williams, Boozer and Okur) and a quiet night from Bryant (quiet by his standards). After all of that, the game was still very close; therefore, the Lakers should feel really good about the series. I guess the only thing the Jazz got going is that they have been there last year - in the Western Conference Finals AND down 0:2 in the series, which they won in game seven on the road (against the Rockets). That means that although the Lakers are the clear favorites, nobody is panicking in Utah and that approach might be the only chance they have to get back to the finals.
Finally, is game 4 a must win for the Jazz? No. Game 3 was and the Jazz can still win a series with a game 4 loss on Sunday.
On the other hand, it was nice to see the game being played 5 on 5, which was not the case in Los Angeles - even the Jazz cannot win when playing 5 on 8 and I am glad the refs did not decide the outcome of this game before it was played...I guess the more games are played in the playoffs the better for the league...but Utah needs to be prepared to play 5 on 8 if the series gets to game 7....
Keywords: Carlos Boozer, Deron Williams, Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers, Memo Okur, NBA refs, playoffs, Utah Jazz
