The Los Angeles Lakers begin their quest for their 15th NBA championship when they face the eighth-seeded Utah Jazz in the first round of the 2009 NBA Playoffs.
The Lakers are again the team to beat in the West and gained the No. 1 seed by virtue of a 65-17 record, and now have plenty of healthy weapons for their first-round series, which starts Sunday at 3 p.m. (et).
Pau Gasol has been a force up front all season, and now the Pacific Division winners will look forward to Andrew Bynum being able to help the cause in the low post. Bynum tore the medial collateral ligament in his right knee at the end of January, but came back nearly a week ago.
LA, which lost in six games to the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals last season, also faced the Jazz in the postseason last year, winning the Western Conference semifinal series 4-2.
While talented, Utah is a major underdog to the Lakers, who dominated the West all year and clinched the best record in the conference on March 27. The team's 65 regular-season victories tied for the third-best record in the franchise's storied history and was the 11th time that the Lakers hit the 60- win plateau.
Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, who was elected to the Hall of Fame this year and recorded his 1,000th victory as a coach in Utah, is playing up the underdog status for all its worth noting that Lakers feel the Jazz are "a little dent in the road" on their way to a championship.
You can't fault Los Angeles for feeling confident about the matchup. Traditionally a poor road team, Utah struggled with Kobe Bryant in last year's playoffs and will now have to deal with a pair of 7-footers on the front line in Gasol and Bynum.
The Jazz have dropped nine consecutive games to the Lakers at Staples Center -- including all three in last years playoffs -- and were just 15-26 away from Salt Lake City this season, beating only one team with a winning record, the New Orleans Hornets.
Utah will also enter the playoffs on a down note having dropped seven of their final nine games, including a 125-112 setback at LA in the season finale for both clubs on Tuesday. LA's victory over Utah on Tuesday night at Staples Center gave them the edge in the season series, 2-1. Every game was won by the home team, however.
MATCHUPS:
POINT GUARD: The point is the one position where Utah has a big edge over the Lakers. Deron Williams is one of the game's most electrifying quarterbacks with the speed and quickness to drive the paint at will. The former All-Star missed 14 games due to injury this season but still came back to average a double-double (19.4 PPG and 10.7 APG).
LA's counters with steady veteran Derek Fisher. Fisher doesn't have the athletic ability to push the ball on a consistent basis and Bryant will actually do a lot of ball-handling for the Lakers. Fisher is a solid stand- still jump shooter who will not make a lot of mistakes but also won't stand out at either end of the floor. He's also not equipped to keep up with Williams, meaning Phil Jackson may have to call on Jordan Farmar or Shannon Brown a little more than he would like.
EDGE: JAZZ
SHOOTING GUARD: LeBron James deserves the MVP award this season after leading the Cleveland Cavaliers to their best regular season in franchise history but ask around the NBA and most still feel the reigning MVP, Bryant, is still the best all-around player in basketball. Bryant was his usual stellar self on the offensive end this season, averaging 26.8 points and 4.9 assists per game. Kobe also has the length and athleticism to torture the opposition on the defensive end and amassed 120 steals during the season.
Sloan will throw plenty of looks at Bryant but Ronnie Brewer will get the first shot to try and slow down the All-Star. Brewer was a bit of a surprise this season on the offensive end and is a solid defender. He finished with 14 points and five steals against the Lakers on Tuesday.
EDGE: LAKERS
CENTER: The sharp-shooting Mehmet Okur missed Tuesday's season finale after suffering a mild right hamstring strain in the second quarter of Monday's win over the Clippers but should be ready to go against the Lakers and Bynum.
Okur and Bynum are polar-opposites. Both are 7-footers but Okur likes to stay on the perimeter and stretch the defense while Bynum is a more traditional center that can pound you inside and dominate the boards with sheer size.
Okur was Utah 's second-leading scorer on the season at 17.0 ppg and also manages 7.7 rebounds per contest. He averaged 21.5 points and 10.5 rebounds in two games against the Lakers this season.
Bynum has been productive in his return since missing 32 games with a knee injury but his timing is still not quite there. Bynum did put up 22 points in 30 minutes against Utah on Tuesday night.
EDGE: LAKERS
SMALL FORWARD: Utah 's C.J. Miles continues to be hampered by swelling associated with the dislocated left index finger suffered on April 3. The swelling has made it difficult to catch and shoot naturally so he could be limited but the Sloan has plenty of depth with Andrei Kirilenko and Kyle Korver.
Trevor Ariza is probably the Lakers most underrated player. A hard-nosed defender and capable scorer, Ariza's improved play has given Phil Jackson the ability to bring the gifted Lamar Odom off the bench, a tough matchup for any second unit in the league.
EDGE: LAKERS
POWER FORWARD: Both teams have All-Star level players here but Utah 's oft- injured Carlos Boozer suited up for only 37 games this season. When on the floor, Boozer was his usual disruptive self, averaging 16.2 points and 10.4 boards per contest.
Gasol, meanwhile, has settled in nicely as the second offensive option behind Bryant. The Spanish star netted 18.9 ppg and pulled down 9.6 rpg. An extremely gifted offensive player, Gasol is not the toughest player on the block and is really helped by the presence of Bynum.
EDGE: LAKERS
BENCH: Both teams have talented benches. Sloan can rely on the stat-stuffing Kirilenko, a dominating rebounder in Paul Millsap and an excellent three-point marksman in Korver. Veteran forward Matt Harpring can also bring energy minutes in short bursts but must be protected given his history of knee and ankle surgeries.
Jackson has the aforementioned Odom along with Farmar, Brown, Sasha Vujacic and forward Luke Walton. Brown is positioning himself to take some of Farmar's minutes as the backup point guard, especially if the opposition features a quick point guard like Williams.
EDGE: EVEN
PREDICTION: This is not your typical one-eight matchup. In fact, the Jazz are one of the most talented eight seeds in history. Injuries hamstrung Sloan's club for most of the year but you look up at the end of the season and Utah still has 48 wins.
That said, the Jazz are no match for Kobe Bryant and Company. Two things killed Utah this season, the inability to win on the road and its awful play in back-to-back games. The Jazz finished 15-26 away from home and had a miserable 3-18 record in the second game of back-to-back sets. Only the woeful Washington Wizards had fewer wins (two) in such games. The NBA playoff format will nullify the back-to-back problem but can't help the road woes.
Meanwhile, since the NBA playoffs expanded to 16 teams in 1984, No. 8 seeds have gone 3-47 in the first round, with only Golden State in 2007, New York in 1999 and Denver in 1994 pulling upsets. Translation...
LAKERS in 5
