Preseason? It sure didn’t feel like it to the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Lakers.
Playing before Hawaii hoops fans frothing at the mouth on Tuesday night at the sold-out Stan Sheriff Center, the teams showed an amount of passion and fight uncommon for an exhibition thousands of miles from the NBA’s beaten path. The Jazz were game for such a physical battle — Utah forward Trevor Booker was ejected in the third quarter for taking an open-handed swing at Lakers center Roy Hibbert — and prevailed 117-114 in overtime.
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KEY: Utah’s Alec Burks makes back-to-back baskets in overtime as the Jazz sweep the Lakers.
RANDLE’S THE MAN: Lakers’ youngster happy to be back on the floor after trying rookie year.
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“It was a regular-season game,” said Utah guard Alec Burks, who scored a game-high 27 points on 9-for-14 shooting after going scoreless in Sunday’s first game between the teams.
“Everybody was fighting hard. … Got in an altercation, it was getting physical. So it was a hard-fought game. It’s going to make us better. I like this type of game.”
Burks made back-to-back baskets to stake the Jazz to a 113-108 lead with 2:10 to play in OT.
The Lakers had their chances to take the lead, but guard Lou Williams (20 points) missed a tying 3-pointer from the corner in the final seconds. On the Lakers’ previous possession, the Jazz had taken a foul to prevent a tying 3-point shot.
“We thought they were going to foul (again),” Williams said. “So when I caught the ball, I just wanted to go up in a shooting motion. But at the last minute Joe (Ingles) pulled back and didn’t foul me and just had to chuck one up.”
A second straight pro-Lakers sellout crowd was on hand to cap Los Angeles’ first training camp and exhibition games in Hawaii in eight years.
The crowd roared for superstar Kobe Bryant and the Lakers, and booed the Jazz lustily.
“It was unbelievable. It was great,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. “It was a road game, it felt like, for us. It wasn’t a typical preseason game, that’s for sure. I think both teams got a lot out of it.”
It was a more competitive and faster-paced game than Sunday’s exhibition, won by the Jazz 90-71. This time Utah shot above 50 percent and the Lakers 43 percent.
“I thought our effort was so much better tonight,” Lakers coach Byron Scott said. “So much more aggressive. We did a lot of good things on both ends of the floor.”
Bryant played 21 minutes across the first three quarters, up from 12 minutes in the Sunday game — all in the first quarter. This time he scored 13 points on 5-for-9 shooting compared to five on 1-for-5 shooting Sunday.
“We worked extremely, extremely hard and I think we became a much better unit,” Bryant said of the trip. “It felt great to be back here and it felt great to have the support.”
Bryant said after the two games he is unconcerned about the shoulder injury that ended his 2014-15 season prematurely.
“I’m past the recovery phase,” he said. “It’s just getting the timing down.”
With 7:14 remaining in the third quarter, Hibbert and Booker had a confrontation during a dead ball after Booker and Julius Randle made contact. As Hibbert approached Booker, Booker swung at Hibbert with an open palm and appeared to make some contact to his head. Booker was ejected, while Hibbert received one technical foul.
“We play together. And I’m not going to speak too much about that,” Hibbert said. “One through 15 I step up for anybody. … I have anybody’s back.”
Guard Elijah Millsap got a reverse putback of an airballed 3-pointer to beat the halftime buzzer and gave the Jazz a 49-48 lead at the break.
The Lakers fed off the emotion of the play to go up 68-59 on two Hibbert baskets inside, followed by a steal and dunk by Julius Randle.
Jazz guard Rodney Hood hit back-to-back 3s to trim the lead. Bryant answered with a 3 to make it 71-65 Lakers.
Utah rallied to tie it at 78 to end the third quarter.
Utah forward Trey Lyles ended a 12-2 Lakers run with a three-point play, getting the Jazz within 102-99 with 2:35 to play. However, Lakers guard Nick Young answered right back with a step-back 3-pointer.
Jazz center Jeff Withey got a dunk, the Lakers missed a 3 and Hood stuck a floater in the lane. Burks blocked a Lakers 3-point attempt and Withey soared in for a baseline dunk to tie it at 105 with 30 seconds left.
The crowd rose up as Williams had a 3-point try to win it just before the buzzer, but he was off the mark and the teams went to OT. The teams now return to the mainland to resume the rest of their preseason schedules.
Bryant scored 10 points in the first half on 4-for-8 shooting.
