Lakers Wrap Preseason With Win Over Utah

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) Steve Blake scored 13 of his 19 points in the third quarter, Pau Gasol and Nick Young each had 16, and the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Utah Jazz 111-106 Friday night in the preseason finale for both teams.

Gordon Hayward led Utah with 18 points and seven rebounds, and Alec Burks had 18 off the bench. Rudy Gobert got 12 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter to help the Jazz keep it close.

A moment of silence was observed at Honda Center for Hall of Famer Bill Sharman, who coached the Lakers to their first NBA championship in Los Angeles in 1971-72 - when they won a franchise-record 69 games and a league-record 33 in a row.

Sharman died Friday at age 87 after suffering a stroke last Saturday. He had been a special consultant with the organization for the previous 23 seasons.

Trailing by 15 points after three, the Jazz got as close as 100-96 on Lester Hudson's 3-pointer with 5:41 remaining.

Hayward led Utah to a 53-51 halftime lead with 16 points, eight of them at the end of a 19-2 run that turned an 11-point deficit into a 48-42 advantage with 2:27 left in the second quarter.

But the Lakers opened the third with a 20-6 run that put them ahead 71-59, and they increased the margin to 88-73 on Blake's 3-pointer with 8.4 seconds left in the quarter.

The Lakers finished the preseason 4-4. It was their first training camp under coach Mike D'Antoni, who was hired five games into last season after the team started out 1-4 under Mike Brown.

The Lakers open the regular season Tuesday night against the Clippers, who won all four meetings last season.

Utah will host Oklahoma City in its opener on Wednesday night after finishing its exhibition schedule a league-worst 1-7.

"I'm looking forward to it," coach Tyrone Corbin said. "We've made some great strides in the exhibition season. We're starting over in some ways, so performance and consistency is going to be a key for us, along with how we're going to perform in certain situations.

"It's going to be different and there's going to be a lot of adjustments, so we have to make sure we stay on top of it and keep ourselves growing as much as we can."