5 Things to Keep an Eye on: Lakers at Jazz, Game 4 - FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

In another of our continuing series, five things to keep an eye out for tonight in the Lakers-Jazz Western Conference Semifinals Game 4 this afternoon.

1. Recovering Boozer: Well, well, well. Carlos Boozer is alive. With 27 points and 20 boards, Boozer reasserted himself as a force in this series. He's going to need to keep it up, though, if the Jazz want to even this thing up headed back to LA, where things are, well, a bit tougher. This matchup between the two teams is awkward in the paint. Boozer is a power forward who can play tough, but isn't a true banger, but he's also not a soft Euro-forward. And by euro-forward I mean "player that Lamar Odom can effectively guard." Boozer's range and versatility are excellent once he finds his rhythm and doesn't try and do too much. If he can keep his game in the sweet zone he had it in Game 3, the Jazz can take care of business at home.

2. The Gall Of Gasol: After a solid three months of being praised as the greatest Laker thing since Mark Madsen, Pau Gasol is finding out what it's like when you don't play 100% perfect in LA. His coach was highly critical after Game 3's 12 point, 6 rebound, 1 assist outing by the sensitive Euro-center. Apparently Phil Jackson expects his center to be physical or some such nonsense. Apparently he didn't read the book on Gasol when they traded for him. Gasol had 7 blocks in Game 2, so he's not incapable of playing tough. But you kind of need to, well, go straight at him. Get him trying to rotate in the block and he gets a little careless on those 7 foot legs of his. Still, Gasol is highly coachable, and Jackson is an expert at masking player's weaknesses, so I would expect a big comeback from Gasol in Game 4.

3. The New "How To Beat The Lakers" Model: Inspired by the old "How To Beat The Lakers" model. It's pretty simple. Kobe Bryant does what he wants. But he's the only one. The only reason the Lakers got back into that game was on account of Kobe getting his teammates involved and taking over for a short time. The model is essentially this. If Kobe scores 40, that's fine, as long as his teammates combined don't score 70. You try and limit him on drives to the basket, keep your spacing tight enough to close out, hammer the boards, and pressure the other players as much as possible. You essentially make Bryant into an island. The Jazz need to keep with that strategy for the rest of this series, now that they've touched its nerve.

4. Loss Prevention: The Lakers had 18 turnovers in Game 3, which is, you know, kind of a lot. The Lakers are a high octane offense that features multiple pinpoint passers and players that can run the floor and move in the triangle. Other teams (read: the Nuggets) tried to contain the Lakers by forcing them into bad shots. But with two players (occasionally three) that are worth of a double team, and shooters that have had spacing and rotation drilled into them, guarding the shooter is a pretty difficult proposition. The Jazz learned that in LA. So in Game 4, the Jazz turned to the other option. If you can't keep them from shooting well (the Lakers still shot 46% from the field), then try and create as many turnovers as possible and force them into bad decisions. The Lakers will probably be a mite bit better at handling the ball in Game 4, but the necessary adjustments may help the Jazz keep a hand in their face. If the Jazz can't shift appropriately, though, look out. This team goes from 0 to 90 in about 10 seconds.

5. Fisher Of Men: Derek Fisher had a pretty quiet Game 3 with only three three attempts and 13 points. He's still creating steals off of Deron Williams, but Williams started using his screens more effectively to get separation between him and Fisher. Fisher has to be the perimeter shooter for the Lakers. Vlad Radmanovic is playing well, but Sasha Vujacic has taken massive steps back in the playoffs and Luke Walton is, um ... Luke Walton. Fisher needs to embrace the villain role and bury the Jazz with and avalanche of corner threes off of Kobe's drive and kicks.