Lakers at Jazz
After a vintage performance in a duel with fellow superstar LeBron James, Kobe Bryant will rest once again when the Los Angeles Lakers begin a four-game road trip at Utah on Friday. Bryant will sit out one game of back-to-back sets for the rest of the season and was active when the Lakers fell to James and Cleveland 109-102 on Thursday. It was hard to pin blame on Bryant after he produced a career-high 17 assists in 32 minutes as Los Angeles dropped its third straight and fifth in six games.
The Jazz have also lost three straight after a 116-105 setback at home against Golden State on Tuesday. Derrick Favors continued his solid play with 22 points and 11 rebounds — his fourth double-double in five games — but Utah was done in by a blistering third quarter by the Warriors and fell to 6-12 at home. Favors was one of five Jazz starters in double figures in a 119-104 loss to the Lakers in the previous meeting last April as the teams split a four-game season series.
TV: 9 p.m. ET, TWC SportsNet (Los Angeles), ROOT Sports (Utah)
ABOUT THE LAKERS (12-28): Among the few other bright spots in the loss to Cleveland was the 20-point performance by center Jordan Hill, who was reported to have hyperextended a knee in the previous game but showed no ill effects. Hill has scored in double figures in six straight games after a woeful pair of contests to begin 2015 in which he had just seven total points on 2-of-12 shooting. The six-year pro is averaging 15.4 points and 8.2 rebounds in the last five games that Bryant has sat out.
ABOUT THE JAZZ (13-26): Utah announced on Thursday that it signed swingman Elijah Millsap to a second 10-day contract, rewarding the 27-year-old rookie for some solid play off the bench. He is averaging eight points while making 6-of-11 3-pointers over his last three games, bouncing back from a pair of rough shooting efforts to begin his NBA career earlier in the month. Fellow reserve guard Rodney Hood returned to practice Thursday as he works his way back from a heel injury but is expected to miss his eighth straight game.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Favors is averaging 21.2 points and 10.2 rebounds over his last five games.
2. Jazz SF Gordon Hayward produced 20.5 points while making 9-of-18 3-pointers in the season series against Los Angeles in 2013-14.
3. Hill is averaging 13.8 points on 53.2 percent shooting on the road compared to 10.5 on 40.7 percent at home.