Lakers defeat Jazz, will open playoffs at home against Houston

LeBron James is fouled by Utah Jazz forward Blake Hinson in the first half. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

All that mattered to the Lakers was maintaining the right approach during their final game of the NBA regular season on Sunday.

They were still in contention for a higher seed in the Western Conference, but the Lakers were not focused on that. They were facing one of the worst teams in the league in the Utah Jazz, but the Lakers were not focused on that.

Game 82 was simply about the Lakers continuing to build the right habits, and by doing so they defeated the Jazz 131-107 at Crypto.com Arena.

The Lakers were aware that they were playing simultaneously as the Denver Nuggets, the team they were chasing for the third seed in the West. But the Nuggets beat the Spurs and are the No. 3 seed.

The Lakers (53-29) are the fourth-seeded team and will have home-court advantage over the fifth-seeded Houston Rockets in the first round of the playoffs. Game 1 will be Saturday at 5:30 p.m. at Crypto.com Arena.

With LeBron James leading the way with 18 points, six assists and four rebounds, all in the first half in just 17 minutes, the Lakers won their third straight game, which was a good sign for them because it was their fifth straight game without Luka Doncic (Grade 2 left hamstring strain) and Austin Reaves (Grade 2 left oblique muscle strain).

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"Again, we control what we can control and we play to our standards,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said before the game. “And we need to continue regardless of [the] opponent. And this has been the messaging for the last six weeks: Building the playoff mentality is about us. It's not about the opponent. I wanna say again: Building our playoff mentality is about us and it's not about the opponent. So, we're gonna do that today and that's the goal for today."

The Jazz have the worst record in the West and were playing for nothing but a high lottery pick, and left with another loss that left them at 22-60.

The Lakers got a double-double from Deandre Ayton (22 points, 10 rebounds) and Rui Hachimura (22 points, 10 rebounds).

Bronny James had a strong game off the bench with 11 points on four-for-seven shooting, three-for-four on three pointers, and four assists. Dalton Knecht had 12 points.

Jake LaRavia (two points) played in all 82 games this season, the only Laker to accomplish that feat, making him the 45th player in franchise history to do so. Reaves (2023-24) was the last Laker to have played in every regular-season game.

Marcus Smart attempts a reverse layup against the Utah Jazz on Sunday. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

The Lakers were the higher seed in the last season's playoffs, too, but they lost their opening-round series to the Minnesota Timberwolves, 4-1.

Like last season, the Lakers have a week before playing Game 1 of their best-of-seven series, but they have been preparing for the postseason for a while now.

“Yeah, we started working on that a couple weeks ago, my staff and I, and then we met with performance earlier this week and we’ve got a plan in place and feel pretty confident about it,” Redick said.

The Lakers signed guard Nick Smith Jr. to a standard NBA contract, the team announced Sunday. Smith played in 29 games for the Lakers before Sunday, averaging 6.0 points and 1.0 assists in 12.3 minutes per game. Smith had 12 points against the Jazz.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.