Explaining how the Lakers could go 5-for-23 from three-point range at EnergySolutions Arena after going a combined 12 of 21 at Staples Center, Harpring said, "Obviously, they are more comfortable playing at their place. I mean, playing on the road in the NBA is tough."
But that tough?
Apparently so.
Kobe Bryant was 0-for-6 from beyond the arc, including a couple of airballs, and his teammates weren't much better, after torching the Jazz in Games 1 and 2.
"They have a tough place to play. We have a tough place to play," Harpring said. "Home court advantage is big for a reason."
Harpring took an elbow to the chin trying to defend Bryant, and Ronnie Brewer also took a blow to the chops from the NBA Most Valuable Player.
But both called the shots just part of the game and nothing to get excited about.
"I caught an elbow. But that's part of basketball," Brewer said. "It's a physical game."
The Jazz are still fouling more than Lakers - 28-23 was Friday's count, after 33-30 and 30-20 totals in Los Angeles - but Brewer couldn't explain why fewer fouls were called at home. Perhaps it was because Utah had the lead most of the game.
"We played the same way," he said. "We weren't being more physical or less physical. We weren't playing dirty, like I've heard [said] about us in the past, like against the Rockets."
Actually, the Lakers didn't shoot all that poorly, their woes from three-point range notwithstanding. They shot 48.5 percent, after 45 percent shooting in Game 1 and 57 percent shooting in Game 2.
"Tonight, we played better on defense," Harpring said. "The first two games, we didn't play the defense we are capable of playing.
"We got some loose balls and we got some deflections. That's how we want to play."
Coach Jerry Sloan said it is part of his team's maturation process to learn how to play better defense away from home.
"You just have to compete," he said. "That was the most important thing. I thought we competed very hard, a little bit more than what we had over there."
