The suddenly surging Utah Jazz will meet the injured and struggling Los Angeles Lakers tonight in an NBA 2013 game that will be free live streamed online from the Staples Arena in Los Angeles at 10:30 PM ET. The game will can be watched the TWC SN television network as well as online free at https://nbalivestreamfree.net/.
The last-place Jazz continued their recent success against the Lakers last week by taking advantage of a depleted team.
The Lakers will be even more short-handed for tonight's rematch as they attempt to avoid their longest losing streak in seven seasons.
Utah (11-24) earned its fifth win in the last six meetings with the Lakers on Derrick Favors' putback dunk with 2.1 seconds left last Friday. The 105-103 victory was also among the Jazz's seven in the last 12 games.
The Lakers will once again be without the services of Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, and Steve Blake, depleting their guard corps almost completely. Pau Gasol is expected play after sitting out last week's matchup because of a respiratory infection, but the Lakers likely won't have two players who were in that game.
Another Laker guard, Jordan Farmar, is expected to miss the next month after tearing his left hamstring for the second time this season, and swingman, Xavier Henry who can play small forward or big guard, is out for at least a week because of an ailing right knee.
Kendall Marshall, signed out of the D-League on Dec. 20, remains the only healthy point guard on the Laker roster.
"We are down at the bottom," said coach Mike D'Antoni, who used his eighth different starting lineup in as many games and 17th in 32 contests. "The injuries have torn everybody up, but we have to band together and figure it out. I thought Pau played hard, though he was rusty at first. He didn't look good in the first quarter, but then he picked it up."
The Jazz will try to take down the Lakers again and earn a season-high third consecutive win. Utah topped Milwaukee 96-87 on Thursday, and Favors scored seven of his 21 points in the final 2:03.
"We're getting better each and every game. We're still learning to play together. The chemistry is coming along," said rookie point guard Trey Burke, who was one of six Utah players to score in double figures.
The Jazz, who have dropped their last two road games after winning five of eight, try to send the Lakers to their first seven-game skid since March 2-15, 2007.
Having dropped three straight at home, Los Angeles is also on the verge of its longest losing streak at Staples Center since a five-gamer Jan. 26-Feb. 21, 2007.
