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"It slipped.  It slipped out of my hand," said Kobe Bryant.

And so the Los Angeles Lakers lost at home to an undermanned lottery-bound Utah Jazz squad playing without Andrei Kirilenko, Devin Harris, Raja Bell, Mehmet Okur, Ronnie Price and Kyrylo Fesenko.

Bryant had a chance to close out the game with the Lakers down 86-85 and plenty of time to run a set play out of a timeout.  Instead the Laker All-Star lost the ball and time gently expired.

"What a break.  What a break," repeated Jazz Coach Ty Corbin.  "[Kobe] feeds on those kinds of moments.  It was an opportunity for him to get another big moment - big shot.  Gordon [Hayward], I thought, did a great job of just staying down on him, staying between him in the basket.  [Bryant] pump-faked and the ball slipped out of his hands."

The Lakers were peaking after the All-Star Break but have since lost two straight at STAPLES Center, likely killing their chances at catching the San Antonio Spurs and Chicago Bulls in the standings.

LA actually has to look out from the Miami HEAT and Boston Celtics from below.  The HEAT own the tie-breaker, so one more loss and the Lakers may be looking at an NBA Finals in Miami . . . if both teams get that far.  Los Angeles has the tie-breaker over the Celtics.

The Star of the game was rookie guard/forward Gordon Hayward.

The day after his Butler Bulldogs returned to the NCAA Championship Game only to have a historically dismal shooting night.

"It was tough watching my guys last night glued to the TV set all by myself," said Hayward.  "I don’t think they played poorly.  They just missed shots."

Gordon led all scorers (tied actually with teammate Paul Millsap) with 22 points.  He had a hand on just about every late play for the Jazz and took turns with fellow rookie Jeremy Evans in hounding Bryant into a (relatively) tough night.

Bryant would end up with 20 points and seven turnovers.  Hayward matched him with five assists but with three fewer giveaways.  He also had more steals (2-0), rebounds (6-3) and blocks (1-0) than Kobe.

"It was fun.  You’re out there competing, especially against Kobe Bryant.  Growing up, you idolize him," said Hayward.  "Now you’re kind of out there as a competitor, just trying to play as hard as you can against him."

Bryant was gracious after the game when it came to Gordon.

"I’m very, very fond of him.  He’s a very skilled all-around player," said Kobe.  "I think he’s going to have a bright future in this league.  He reminds me of a more talented Jeff Hornacek.  Jeff couldn’t put the ball on the floor as well as he can.  I just think he has a bright future."

Coach Phil Jackson joked after the game that he had hoped Hayward would have stayed in school another year.

Jackson didn’t want to make too much of the loss but noted, "We didn’t execute what we practiced today and that’s something the coaches aren’t happy about."

Before the loss he described the late-game surges his team had been capitalizing on since the All-Star Break.

"There’s an edge in every game like a crack in the egg or whatever you want to call it where you just have to see a team is vulnerable," said Jackson.  "We talk about it a little bit – that moment when if you can get a 6-0, 10-0 burst in the game it really makes a big difference and you can separate yourself a little bit and that’s what we look for.

"Usually it’s a second half type of thing that you look for."

Jackson acknowledged that it was his team that proved vulnerable in those key moments against the Jazz and earlier against the Nuggets.

Utah had lost 17-straight games against the Lakers at STAPLES Center.  They had lost eight in a row before their skeleton crew took it to the Lakers.

"This is exactly what we want, exactly.  Forty-eight minutes of just laying it out there, counting on each other on the defensive end of the floor, making the extra pass on the offensive side of the floor, making hard drives to the basket," said Corbin,  "Just read what the defense gives you . . . defensively just talk and communicate and play hard."

The only Lakers who seemed to be truly playing to win were Ron Artest who had four blocks and three steals – and Andrew Bynum who grabbed a career-high 23 rebounds.

Surprisingly Utah finished with 52 boards to LA’s 49.

While Pau Gasol had 19 points on just 10 shot attempts, he struggled late . . . perhaps feeling the effects of a bone bruise (knee) suffered in the Denver game.

"We just let them hang around and gave them plenty of chances," said Gasol.  "We just weren’t sharp, weren’t focused enough I guess."

Odom was more demonstrative calling it "the worst game of the year."

And for the Jazz and certainly Hayward, it was probably their best.

"I think it helps your confidence a little bit again it’s one game and there’s a long way to go," said Gordon.  "You’ve got to be consistent."

Actually there isn’t a long way to go any more.  The kid only has five more games until he becomes an NBA sophomore.

Perhaps he was speaking to his career and the time it’ll take for him to be able to catch Tuesday’s lightning in a bottle.

Veteran teammate Earl Watson thinks Hayward is underrated and underappreciated.

"The thing is he never really changed.  I think he’s just enhanced his game and worked hard.  He came in with an unbelievable skill-set, he just had to get used to the physical play and wait patiently," said Watson.  "I’ve said it before, a lot of rookies come in and they learn on the job.  Gordon has had the chance to come and learn under some really good vets . . . but as frustrating as that may be, the season is long so all the frustrations and hard work paid off cause in this league there’s always injuries and now he has a chance.  People don’t realize he’s been shooing like 46% from the three and he’s still never talked about as one of the best rookies or one of the top rookies in the NBA but he’s silently, silently putting in great work for our team."

Hayward has played about 16 minutes a game through 68 while averaging a little under five points.

The Jazz play again on Thursday, hosting the Portland Trail Blazers.

The Lakers go again quickly against the Warriors on Wednesday. {AUTHOR_BOX}

"We knew we were down for some type of energy let-down a little bit.  That’s what it’s been.  Our energy has been a little low the last two games," said Bryant.  "It makes no sense but see if we can pick it up with a back-to-back with Golden State.  It should be interesting."

Favors a Handful

Rookie Derrick Favors, formerly of the New Jersey Nets, had a strong game as well on Tuesday.

He needs to work on his free throws, gifting the Lakers multiple opportunities by missing three of his final four.

Still, he finished with a double-double (14 points and 11 boards) along with two blocks and a steal.

"He’s talented," said Bryant.  "Hopefully they can use him the right way and see what type of player he turns into."

Despite the Jazz giving up significant height, they battled the Lakers all night.

One scout, while watching Bynum grab rebound after rebound just standing over the Jazz, "He makes Favors look like a small forward."

At 6’10", 246 pounds Favors is still just 19-years old.

Throughout his run in New Jersey he was shopped continuously to the Denver Nuggets for Carmelo Anthony before the Nets managed to get point guard Deron Williams out of Utah.

Favors has enjoyed his time with the Jazz, 18-games worth although it hasn’t been an easy transition.

"It was hard at first but it was something I had to deal with and it’s been good so far," said Favors, "You start off with one team and they trade you in the middle of the season to another team.  Just getting used to it and comfortable with everything."

It’s been difficult in general for the players who saw long-time Coach Jerry Sloan leave the organization.

"You make a coaching change – then you make a big trade and the guys are spinning a little bit," said Corbin.  "Nobody is going to feel sorry for you don’t have a lot of time to recuperate.  You try to get the guys on the same page as fast as you can.  We’ve struggled with that a little bit.  We lost some games as a result."

Favors still has a lot of maturing to do.

"We used to have a saying it takes four or five years for big guys in this game to really find their games and develop," said Phil Jackson.  "When you come in at 19 without a whole lot of experience, it takes maybe even a year longer."

"I learned a lot of stuff in Jersey and it helped me with the transition over here because they didn’t have to teach me as much," said Favors who vowed to "just continue playing – continue getting better this summer and come back here next year, ready to go."

This is, if the league and players union can work out a new Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Lakers Still Trying to Win Games

It may not look like it after the last two losses, but Jackson and the Lakers are still trying to win ballgames.

"I’ve kind of been saying we’ll get through the weekend trying to win all these games over the course of this week and then on Sunday start sorting it out," said Phil.  "We’ll have three games left and some things will start to be opening up as to whether we stay after it and intense -  try and keep this record out and determine our own fate – or how we finish this out."

Now that moving up seems out, Jackson may be more inclined to rest starters like Bryant and Gasol.

Then again the Lakers have to be mindful of the HEAT and Celtics below.

Jackson didn’t bother downplaying the importance of home court advantage.

"That’s something you really always say, ‘No you don’t [need it],’ when you don’t have it and you say, ‘It’s really great’ when you do have it."

Jackson also joked that "Twitter has kind of passed me by.  The desire to communicate that exists in our community sometimes befuddles me."

Rodman & Kwame

Jackson had a few thoughts about two former players:

First on Dennis Rodman who was just named to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

"I’m really happy for him.  I really want to go and I wasn’t able to go to Michael [Jordan's] or Scottie [Pippen's] but I’d really like to go to Dennis’ because this is an honoring of a guy who had a tremendous impact on basketball, especially on the team that he played for that I coached.  His game was remarkable.  A lot of people don’t understand that.  They thought he was a showman or a showboat or whatever.  It was hard for him to stay focused a lot of time on basketball but when he did, he was an incredible basketball player."

Second, Kwame Brown and his influence on Andrew Bynum.

"We knew that we had to get another person ahead of [Bynum] so that he could come off the bench and Kwame Brown was a real good defensive player (traded for that year so that we would have some basis and Andrew could learn).  That process really helped Andrew grow up and every day having to work against a guy like Kwame gave him some kind of competitive edge.  It was good for him.  Andrew’s developed very nicely and we haven’t put a lot of pressure on him to speed it up and I think that’s the thing that’s really important."