His minutes tell another.

During the Lakers' 111-104 victory that gave them a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven shootout that continues Friday night at EnergySolutions Arena, Brewer finished with 16 points on 7-for-9 shooting.

Especially in the first quarter, Brewer found cracks in a Laker defense worried more about Carlos Boozer, Memo Okur and Deron Williams and scored on a burst of dunks, layups and tip-ins.

During a 90-second span - with Kobe Bryant drifting off him and helping on others - Brewer poured in the Jazz's first eight points. By himself, he nearly wiped out an early seven-point deficit.

"Oh, yeah," Boozer said. "Kobe was real loose as far as letting Ronnie get to where he wanted to go and focusing on where I was. ... If I was posting up Pau [Gasol], Kobe would just come and stand behind us so I wouldn't be able to get around him. That's how Ronnie got some of those layups. Plus, D-Will did an exceptionally good job finding him."

Said Williams: "Ronnie did a great job of running the floor and finding the open spots."

"I just tried to move without the ball and be aggressive," Brewer explained.

On the defensive end, however, the Jazz's second-year guard struggled, explaining why he played only 23 minutes.

Bryant scored the Lakers' first five points, and, when he hit another jumper midway through the first quarter, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan switched Brewer onto Vladimir Radmanovic.

The bonfire continued.

Radmanovic scored 10 points in the next 3 1/2 minutes, including six on a pair of back-to-back jumpers that gave the Lakers a 25-16 lead.

In the second quarter, Kyle Korver got into foul trouble, and Sloan went back to Brewer. The Lakers' Sasha Vujacic quickly buried a three-pointer over him and Sloan pulled Brewer in favor of seldom-used C.J. Miles.

"Without a doubt, he struggled," Sloan said. "We had to change that matchup [on Bryant] around a little sooner than we wanted. [But] you're talking about a young player who has made great strides this year ... and will continue to get better."

Sloan won't change his rotation in Game 6, despite the fact the Laker defense is likely to keep sagging off Andrei Kirilenko and Brewer to help on Boozer, Okur and Williams.

"We've got two guys - they lay off two of our guys," Sloan said. "They lay off Andrei and they lay off Ronnie and they welcome them to shoot the ball. ... But that's who we are.

"We could starting changing, but I've got guys who are comfortable playing off the bench. So we'll just try to stick our jump shots a little better. Then our bigger people will have a better opportunity to get open. We've done all season. We just have to be a little more alert against this team."