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Now we know why teams play so hard during the regular season to get as high a seed as possible: because home court advantage apparently matters. Utah went home for Game 3, and all of their problems seemed to go away, as they cruised to a 104-99 win over the Lakers. I say "cruised" because, after Utah took the lead in the second quarter, they never gave it up, and led by as many as 12 in the fourth before the Lakers made it close at the end. Utah's win makes home teams a perfect 11-0 in the second round of the playoffs.

The Lakers started this game by rolling to an 11-3 lead, and it looked for a moment like this would be more of what we saw in the first two games. But Derek Fisher picked up two quick fouls, and once he left, the Jazz went on an 8-0 run and the Lakers seemed out of sync. Kobe started slowly, but ended up getting his, and finished with 34 points, six rebounds, and seven assists. But he did most of his damage in the third quarter, and despite his efforts, the Lakers couldn't consistently get stops, so the Utah lead never dipped below six points in the quarter.

Carlos Boozer had a monster game for the Jazz, pouring in 27 points and 20 rebounds. Just a dominating performance, and Mehmet Okur contributed 22 himself, hitting an important 4-7 from three-point range. Deron Williams seemed to injure his right wrist, and could be seen icing it while on the bench. He appeared to shake it off when in the game though, finishing with 18 points and 12 assists, while playing aggressively all night long.

For the Lakers to get back on track in Game 4, they'll need to limit their turnovers (they had 18 in Game 3) and not allow all three of the Jazz's weapons to go off at the same time. Keeping Fisher out of foul trouble will be important as well, as he does a good job containing Deron Williams while stabilizing the Laker offense. Better shot selection by the Lakers and more aggressive defensive schemes on Boozer should give the Lakers a good chance of stealing one on the road this Sunday, but it will be a tall task, considering no team has been able to do that yet in this round of the playoffs.