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Los Angeles • Kendall Marshall might not be a superstar in the making, but the Jazz certainly helped him look like one tonight.
In his first start with the Lakers, Marshall scored 20 points, handed out 15 dimes and grabbed six rebounds, all while committing just a single turnover. It was a performance that had L.A. coach Mike D'Antoni talking about Marshall in the same breath as another point guard he once coached."I'm not making any comparison but Jeremy Lin did the same thing," D'Antoni told reporters.That's something the Jazz know a little about, having helped launch the Linsanity craze by giving up 28 points to a then largely unknown Knicks point guard in February 2012.Marshall was a high draft pick out of North Carolina, but couldn't stick in Phoenix. When he was traded to Washington along with Marcin Gortat, he was cut and spent time in the D-League earlier this year.And he apparently noticed when the Jazz cut Jamaal Tinsley and replaced him with Diante Garrett."I know that the Jazz let go of a guard earlier this year and I didn't get a call, so I kind of felt a certain way about that," our friend Bill Oram quoted Marshall as saying after the 110-99 win over the Jazz.Jazz forward Richard Jefferson thinks Marshall, the Lakers' sixth different starting point guard this year, could stick with the team."He knows how to play point guard, let's be honest," Jefferson said. "He was an All-American in college. He was a first round pick. Things didn't really go his way, but he knows how to play. You don't forget how to play basketball."You put him in this system where it's spread with shooters and it's a good recipe. There's a reason Phoenix drafted him to back up Steve Nash and now he's in a Steve Nash system with D'Antoni and he put on a show. He put on a clinic."— Aaron Falk