SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Familiarity doesn’t seem to be much help to the Utah Jazz against the Los Angeles Lakers in the playoffs.
For the third straight year, the Lakers lead 2-0 as the Western Conference playoff series comes to Utah for two games that the Jazz know are crucial to any aspirations they have of knocking out the defending champions.
Game 3 is Saturday night in Salt Lake City. Utah has won the third game in each of the last two series against Los Angeles and avoided a daunting 3-0 deficit to the Lakers. The Jazz know they’ll need to do it again or they could be trying to fend off a sweep in Game 4 on Monday.
The Lakers would like to avoid a repeat of the first round, when they led Oklahoma City 2-0 before the Thunder tied it with two wins at home.
