But they fumbled away a prime opportunity on Wednesday night.

Treating the basketball like it was a hot potato in the early going, the Jazz committed 19 turnovers in their 111-104 Game 5 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center.

The Jazz were averaging 12.75 turnovers in the series entering Wednesday's night game, but eclipsed that mark before 20 minutes had even expired. They finished with 15 in the first half, which was more than their total turnovers in any of the previous four games of the series.

"Turnovers were definitely a problem in the first half, just careless with the ball, fumbling the ball," said Jazz point guard Deron Williams, who finished with three of his team-high four turnovers in the first half.

"The second half was a lot better, and the reason we played a lot better in the second half was because we cut down on some of those turnovers and they can't get out and run as much as they would like to."

The Jazz didn't have to wait long for an indicator of things to come. They committed three straight turnovers to start the game, and had five through the first five minutes as the offensive appeared out of sync.

The Jazz made adjustments at halftime to keep the ball in their possession with only four turnovers in the second half, but the damage had already been done. Although they were able to rally from down 12 points, the best they could ever do was force a tie and never take a lead.

"We were down because we lost the ball 15 times," Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko said. "That is too much, too much, especially for halftime. I think we did a good job in the second half taking care of the ball, but in the beginning we gave them too much of a lead."

rpotkey@sltrib.com