Basketball: Lakers' season will not be defined by this tough stretch - James

Rudy Gobert and Jordan Clarkson each scored 18 points and the Utah Jazz routed the Los Angeles Lakers 114-89 on Wednesday night. Gobert also had nine rebounds for Utah (26-6), which won for the 22nd time in its last 24 games — with 20 of those victories coming by double-digits. Bojan Bogdanovic added 15 points, Mike Conley had 14 points, eight rebounds and eight assists, and Donovan Mitchell finished with 13 points, 10 rebounds, and eight assists. LeBron James scored 19 points and Montrzel Harrell added 16 to lead the Lakers (22-11), who lost their fourth straight and fifth in six games. Back-to-back baskets from James and Marc Gasol gave the Lakers a 17-13 lead as Los Angeles hung with Utah for a quarter. But the final three quarters belonged to the Jazz. Utah scored baskets on four straight possessions — starting with back-to-back buckets from Clarkson — to take a 35-25 lead early in the second quarter. Clarkson, Royce O'Neale and Conley each hit a 3-pointer in that stretch. That was a sneak preview of Utah's barrage of outside baskets. The Jazz made eight 3-pointers during the second quarter and shot 14 of 23 (.609) from long distance in the first half. They built a 63-47 halftime lead after Mitchell drained a 3 and Gobert followed with back-to-back baskets over Utah's final three possessions of the half. The Jazz slammed the door early in the third quarter when Gobert threw down back-to-back alley-oop dunks to extend Utah's lead to 71-47.