Lakers may be just too good

It’s not a foregone conclusion because no games have been played, but the consensus by outsiders is that the Lakers will roll by the Utah Jazz in their best-of-seven first-round playoff series that starts Sunday at Staples Center.

Why? Too much talent. Too much depth. Too much length. Too much drive. And too much Kobe Bryant.

“I just don’t seen Utah in a series beating the Lakers,” TNT analyst Doug Collins said. “Maybe Utah wins one game.”

The Lakers had the best record in the Western Conference at 65-17 and are the top-seeded team. The Jazz finished at 48-34, is seeded eighth, and entered the playoffs having lost five of its last seven games.

The Lakers won the season-series, 2-1, and by an average of 13 points.

“I think L.A. can get them in five or six,” said former guard Ron Harper, who won two of his five NBA championships with the Lakers.

One Western Conference scout, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it was his team’s policy, said that the Jazz would be a “tough out,” but that the Lakers would prevail. “I’d take the Lakers in six” games, the scout said. “Utah will be tough at home.”

One key to defeating Utah, the scout said, is to “disrupt their system,” which is hard to do because “they rarely settle for the shot of least resistance. . . . They’ll make the extra pass to get a closer shot.”

The scout added Lakers Coach Phil Jackson’s triangle offense is geared to putting players on the move, looking for ways for Bryant to exploit the defense, taking advantage of Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol, finding seams for Lamar Odom and other Lakers.

“The Lake Show, they are good at scoring in a variety of ways,” said Harper, a former Detroit Pistons assistant coach. “They can score in the half-court game and they can score on the fastbreak.”

The one matchup advantage for Utah is its point guard, Deron Williams.

He has size and strength (6 feet 3, 210 pounds) and the ability to score (22-point average against the Lakers this season,) and can distribute the basketball (12 assists against the Lakers).

“Deron Williams is such a key to their team,” Collins said.

“There will be the challenge that Deron Williams poses,” said former Laker Rick Fox, a TV analyst for FS West. “It’s not a slight against any of the Lakers point guards. It’s just that there is a reason why he takes over games. He has a physical presence.”

“Utah has a great point guard in Williams,” Harper said. “You have to make him score the basketball. But if he gets everybody else off, they are good.”

Williams is particularly adept at probing defenses and running Utah’s pick-and-roll.

Jackson, not known to offer high praise often, was relatively effusive after Williams had 25 points and 13 assists in Utah’s loss to the Lakers on Tuesday night.

“He’s pretty damn good,” Jackson said.

Derek Fisher and Shannon Brown will have the tough job of trying to deal with Williams.

Collins described Utah’s big men, 6-foot-8 Carlos Boozer at power forward and 6-foot-11 Mehmet Okur at center, as “undersized,” especially compared with the Lakers 7-footers, Bynum and Gasol.

Okur didn’t play in the regular season-finale against the Lakers because of a mild strained right hamstring but is expected to ready for the playoff opener.

“I’m not so much worried about Carlos Boozer because of the length the Lakers have,” Fox said.

Because the Jazz are so “rugged,” the scout said, the Lakers will have to maintain their composure. “There will be at least one technical foul a game against both teams because the Jazz are so physical and aggressive,” the scout said.

That was the case in all three regular-season games.

In the game Tuesday, Bryant and Williams were assessed technical fouls. In a game this season, Bryant and Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan got technical fouls and in another game Sloan and Williams got technical fouls.

“Utah plays hard and they are a scrappy team,” Harper said. “The Lakers can’t back down and they can’t be afraid to be physical back. If the Lakers are tough, they’ll win this series and move on.”

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