{"id":60098,"date":"2025-11-19T09:21:44","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T09:21:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/60098\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T09:21:44","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T09:21:44","slug":"jazz-square-off-against-surging-los-angeles-lakers-preview-injuries-how-to-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/60098\/","title":{"rendered":"Jazz square off against surging Los Angeles Lakers: preview, injuries, how to watch"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has been a confusing, yet entertaining first month of Jazz basketball to say the least. They had endured some of the worst blowouts<\/a> ever to grace this franchise; however, the \u2018WIN WIN WIN!\u2019 voice in Ryan Smith\u2019s head has also given way to some of the best competitive basketball the team has faced since moving on from Rudy and Donovan. Tonight is one of those bipolar games where you really don\u2019t know which Jazz team will step on the floor tonight. The Jazz (5-8) visit the Lakers (10-4), where all spectacles lie on the return of \u2018The Little Emperor\u2019 (yes, that is a real LeBron nickname listed on Basketball Reference). Winning isn\u2019t a priority for this group, but hey, I\u2019ll take an upset win in Los Angeles any day of the week.<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll be no easy gimme for the hopeful Jazz. The Lakers have won 6 out of their last 7 matchups in Crypto.com Arena\/Staples Center dating back to 2022. The infamous Jalen Hood-Schifino Jazz trade has worked out nicely for the Lakers \u2014 they\u2019re 10-4 thus far despite injuries to their top duo. They rank second in the league at charity-stripe shots, not amazing news for the Jazz (or Ace Bailey<\/a>), who rank in the bottom 10 in personal fouls.<\/p>\n

Likely, the Jazz will turn once again to their newly established 7-foot Klay Thompson, who\u2019s found his bread and butter by scoring off the catch and shoot and cutting to the rim. He\u2019s top 5 in league scoring, sitting at 30.6 points per game, shooting 41.2% on 8.8(!!) catch-and-shoot 3-point attempts on the season. It\u2019s a good change of pace from the previous seasons before, definitely attributed to the improved playmaking around him. Speaking of playmaking, it\u2019s why Keyonte George has gathered some talk for the NBA\u2019s Most Improved Player Award. He\u2019s become much more polished with his vision and efficiency as a passer, rising to +1.4 assists per game from the season before. His assists have raised significantly, but so have his turnovers, so we\u2019ll have to see if he can clean that up a bit. He has the ball in his hands far more than usual and is still learning when to pass and when not to. Turnovers have been a problem for this team as a whole. Against an average defensive team like the Lakers (15th in defensive rating), Keyonte has a chance to contribute for another huge night. With that, I prescribe you a mandatory Keyonte George \u2019Where\u2019s Waldo?\u2018 graph (Hint: he has fewer turnovers than some of your favorite superstars):<\/p>\n

Highlighted by the return of L-Train (another official LeBron James nickname listed on Basketball Reference), they sit fourth in the Western Conference. The team has performed quite well under the reign of Luka Don\u010di\u0107. He\u2019s been nothing but incredible thus far. In Sunday\u2019s 119-95 victory in Cream City, the former NBA scoring champion scored 41 points against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks. He averages 34.4 points while shooting 46.9% from the field. He leads the Lakers\u2019 attack that is fifth in the league with a 57.1 eFG%, which could prove to be detrimental to a Jazz defense that ranks 24th in the NBA with a 118.1 defensive rating.<\/p>\n

QUESTIONABLE – Kyle Filipowski (right wrist sprain), Kyle Anderson (right low back soreness), Taylor Hendricks (sore right hamstring)<\/p>\n

OUT – Georges Niang (left foot, fourth metatarsal stress reaction), Walker Kessler (left shoulder surgery)<\/p>\n

Who: Utah Jazz at Los Angeles Lakers<\/p>\n

When: November 18th, 8:30PM Mountain Time<\/p>\n

Where: Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles<\/p>\n

Radio: 97.5\/1280 The Zone
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It has been a confusing, yet entertaining first month of Jazz basketball to say the least. They had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[18215,48,52,51,47,50,49,18202],"class_list":{"0":"post-60098","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-jazz-game-preview","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-headlines","11":"tag-la-news","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","14":"tag-los-angeles-news","15":"tag-utah-jazz-game-coverage"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}