Five takeaways from the Lakers’ 96-89 loss to the Jazz

After a win to open the season, the Lakers fell to the Utah Jazz on Friday night. At several points in the game, the Lakers were within striking distance, but couldn’t capitalize on those chances.

They’re off to Oklahoma City tonight, but here are five takeaways from this game and our postgame interviews.

1. Lou Williams’ off-the-court impact on his teammates is something they’ve talked about before. Coach Luke Walton said he’s someone to whom players naturally gravitate. On Friday night we saw some of the impact he can have on the court. He had 17 points and six assists with a steal and turnover. He was a big part of why the Lakers’ second unit gave them such a boost.
2. The Lakers had two significant scoring droughts that put them in difficult holes. They went nearly four minutes without scoring to start the third quarter, then went slight longer than three minutes without scoring in the fourth quarter. The Jazz built an 11-point lead with the third-quarter Lakers drought and went on an 11-0 run with the fourth-quarter Lakers drought.
3. Luke Walton is big on making sure his players understand what it feels like to win and to lose. He wants them to get used to winning. He wants them to remember that it feels bad to lose and be driven to avoid that. In the moments after the game, that feeling was clearly still with Walton. In the postgame locker room D’Angelo Russell declared, to no one in particular, “This one hurt.”
4. Twelve different Lakers saw playing time again, the same as during Wednesday’s opener. This time the only player who didn’t see minutes was Metta World Peace. Thomas Robinson played 1:54, attempted a shot and committed a foul. Luke Walton seems committed to this expansive rotation.
5. As word spread among the Lakers of Thunder guard Russell Westbrook’s 51 points and triple-double against New Orleans Friday, Nick Young produced an impressed chuckle. “Russ is Russ,” Young said. “He’s going to take a lot of shots. Yeah, that’s my dog. We worked out a little bit this summer. I’m just going to try my best [at guarding him], man, see what goes on. I see he was working out with Kobe, and it’s showing.”

tania.ganguli@latimes.com

Follow Tania Ganguli on Twitter @taniaganguli