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SALT LAKE CITY — In the early part of the fourth quarter, a “Let’s go, Lakers!” chant echoed through Vivint Arena.
LeBron James had just run through the lane and delivered a ferocious two-handed slam before letting out a primal scream.
Moments before that, Dwight Howard — yes, that Dwight Howard — hit an 18-foot jumper (and then later added a 3-pointer).
It was that kind of night for the Utah Jazz.
By the time things were over on Wednesday, the Jazz’s home arena sounded more like Staples Center, Utah’s players had had a few on-court disputes with each other and one of the most random streaks in the league had ended.
James, after nearly a decade, finally won a game in Utah again.
The last time James tasted victory in SLC was way back on Dec. 8, 2010 — when he was in his first year with the Miami Heat. That seven-game losing streak came to an end on Wednesday in the Lakers’ 121-96 blowout win over the Jazz.
Was that the reason he let out such a loud cry after delivering the show-stopping slam? And was that why the numerous Laker fans started chanting?
Or was it simply because Los Angeles had just swept a dreaded back-to-back through Denver and Salt Lake City, beating the altitude and two would-be contenders in the process?
The latter seems more likely.
“We knew that this back-to-back was going to be one of the tougher ones,” said James, who had 20 points and 12 assists. “But we just came out with a great mindset, tried to take both teams out of their comfort zone, tried to make them to do some things that they’re not comfortable doing, even though they’re a well-oiled machine.”
Those were some flattering words. But the Jazz are far from the well-oiled machine that LeBron described. Not right now at least.
Donovan Mitchell may have had 29 points, Bojan Bogdanovic may have 23 points while nailing six 3s and Rudy Gobert even had a 13-point, 10-rebound double-double, but this was a bad performance. And it followed a string of bad performances.
This was Utah’s fifth loss in six games — and all of them have come in blowout fashion. Wednesday’s contest followed the same script. The Jazz struggled to score, they struggled in transition and they didn’t communicate well.
Los Angeles outscored the Jazz 32-5 in transition points. That’s a sign of bad decisions on offense combined with a lack of effort running back.
“When you don't finish, it's very difficult to defend,” Utah coach Quin Snyder said. “If you turn the ball over, it's very difficult to defend. And there were a number of times when we didn't run back as hard as we need to. It's that simple. They ran the court harder than we did.”
The Lakers took an 18-point advantage into halftime and led by as many as 25 points in the game as they improved to 19-3 on the season.
James has had plenty of classics during the long losing streak in Utah — many of which he played brilliantly. There was the Sundiata Gaines’ game-winner. The Gordon Hayward game-winner. The late Devin Harris floater. Classic after classic.
The quirky losing streak lost some steam last season when James missed both of the Lakers’ games in Utah (the Jazz won both), and now it’s over.
And instead of the focus being on the mostly meaningless streak, it now shifts to what has gone wrong for the Jazz. A team that was once sitting at the top of the league in defensive efficiency through the first few weeks fo the season to now one that is in a big slide.
Nothing has worked for Utah. And that continued on Wednesday.
The Jazz shot 41% from the field, committed 18 turnovers and sent the Lakers to the line 25 times. All the mistakes added up and they kept on adding up.
"I think at the beginning of the year, there was a determination and a focus defensively and it showed,” Snyder said. “More recently, we've allowed other things, whether it be a missed shot, the perception of a bad call, a turnover — everything's lingered."
Players argued calls, they grew frustrated with each other and let that be known (Donovan Mitchell called those interactions productive ones) and they got punked. If the Lakers are the team the Jazz will have to compete with for a title, Utah isn’t close to their current level.
And that’s why the Laker fans were able to take over Utah's home arena as their team finished off the blowout.
Editor's note: A previous version of this story stated James had six assists. This story has been updated to state the correct statistic.
