LAKERS vs JAZZ (PRE-GAME REPORT)

First off, I'd like to greet everyone a Happy New Year! The Lakers ended 2008 with a bang, and hope to start with one. For Los Angeles' first game in 2009, the Utah Jazz pay the Lakers a visit. From the beginning of the season, this Utah team has been plagued with injuries. Injuries coming from mostly core players in, Derron Williams, Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur, and Paul Millsap. But injury free or not, this team is still above the .500 mark.

With facing another elite point guard(D-Will), D-Fish may have his hands full. It's not Derrons speed that gets you, it's his strength and ability to get in the lane to create shots for his team mates and for himself. Fish may have one up on them being a former Jazz, but if he allows D-Will to do his thing, it may be problems for us. Okur has made his way back to the line-up playing in Utah's last game against Philly. Playing 35 mins and scoring 19pts, but still listed as day-to-day. Boozer is a definite out for this game who is to undergo Arthroscopic Surgery. Depending on Millsap's workout that occured on Wenesday, he may be ready to play in tonights game. I won't even try to guess who's starting and who's not for Utah, with most of their players able in play 2 different positions, it's kind of hard to guess with all the injuries.

The last time Lakers played the Jazz, the Lakers lost. But then again, it was only a preseason game, and they were probably mad about getting knocked out by L.A. in the playoffs. This team is one of those teams we can have big problems with. They love the screen-and-roll and love to do it against the Lakers. As long as they can limit penetration and keep Korver from shooting the 3 ball, they should be good. Game plan again is to feed it inside to our 7-footers. Every team has problems with the Lakers length, and with Utah not being a very tall team, they should take advantage of it. If things don't go according to plan, they can always feed it to Mr. "Western Confrence Player of the Month" Kobe Bryant.

Farmar Update:
After a successful surgery not too long ago, Farmar is already seeing improvement, feeling little pain from the surgical site.
“It feels good, really good. There’s not a lot of pain." said, Farmar. "I just need to get my quad strong and my muscles firing again. I just need to get back on the court and get working on some stuff again."