Mike Celizic

The Lakers got away with one against the Jazz in Game 1, and they had better realiz that fast if they want to get back to the Finals for the first time since the Diesel was wearing purple and gold.

In that 109-98 victory Sunday, the Lakers needed heroic work at the free-throw line from Kobe Bryant — and the Jazz' hideous shooting.

The Lakers were outrebounded 58-41, and Utah had 25 offensive rebounds. The Jazz also took 95 shots — a phenomenal number. You can be sure Los Angeles coach Phil Jackson is reminding his troops that if they play the same way in Game 2 on Wednesday night, they won’t be as lucky — and they won’t win.

You can’t win consistently when you are outrebounded that badly and give up that many shots. Teams won't shoot 38 percent every night and miss as many open looks as the Jazz did. And the referees aren’t going to send Bryant to the line 23 times every night.

The Jazz present a special challenge to anyone who plays them in the postseason. It is the team’s extraordinary home-court advantage. They lost just four games there all season, so any team that figures it can lose one at home and then go to Salt Lake City and get it back is taking an enormous risk.

One of those four losses was inflicted by the Lakers late in the season (March 20). So Los Angeles has some reason to hope it can win on the road. Just the same, it’s not a strategy that’s likely to be described as winning.

That’s what will probably make Game 2 the pivotal point in this series. If the Jazz can straighten out its shooting and keep rebounding as it did, Utah can take control back to its home court. If the Lakers can even out the rebounding, they’ll probably win the game and the series.

You know that the NBA and ABC are going to be watching with fingers crossed. Getting the Lakers and Boston Celtics to the finals are what the ratings guys want, and both teams are looking vulnerable at the moment.

In the East, having LeBron James and Cleveland get to the finals wouldn’t be the worst thing. But in the West, having the Jazz in the finals is a nightmare. They don’t have any players who star in commercials every 30 seconds. And in the eastern part of the country, they’re pretty much a mythical creature, sort of like bigfoot. There are people who claim to have seen them, but if you’re living east of the Mississippi you probably don’t believe them.

So there’s a lot of pressure on the Lakers in Game 2. Usually, the team with the series lead and the home-court advantage is the one that has the least pressure. But not in this series. The Lakers know a couple of things that puts the pressure squarely on them. One is that they got outplayed in many ways Sunday. The other is that they can’t afford to lose at home.

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Underlying that knowledge is the fact the Jazz didn’t have time to prepare for the Lakers. Utah closed out the Houston Rockets on Friday night, and fewer than 40 hours later it had to be in Los Angeles to open its second-round series. While the Lakers, who wiped out the Denver Nuggets in four games, were game-planning and practicing for the Jazz, Utah was just trying to get some sleep and rest its bones.

The Jazz didn’t use that as an excuse for its poor shooting and the dozens of fouls it committed in Game 1. Utah's coach, Jerry Sloan, isn’t the whining type. But it’s only natural to believe that the quick turnaround and inability to hold a practice had something to do with the performance.

Now, Utah gets two days to fix the things that went wrong and think up some new things to go right. One of them would be to play actual defense and not the hack-and-grab stuff the Jazz ended up playing Sunday.

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During the regular season, the Lakers won three of four games against the Jazz, and they shot 54 percent in their wins. On Sunday, the Jazz held them to 45 percent, which is progress. Utah has to keep the Lakers there and preferably lower.

The Lakers, meanwhile, have the same two days to go back to the drawing board, because whatever it was they worked on for this series needs to be rethought. I mean, there’s got to be a game plan other than "Let Kobe save us." I know it works more often than not, but it’s asking a lot, even of a gigastar like Bryant.

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Mostly, they have to keep the Jazz off the boards. Mehmet Okur had 19 rebounds — that can’t happen again, because the Jazz is too good to shoot under 40 percent again.

Wednesday night will tell a lot. If the Jazz win, give Utah a huge edge; maybe an insurmountable one. If the Lakers hold serve, they’ll probably make it to the Western Conference finals. There aren’t a lot of second-round games that are worth staying up until midnight or later to watch. Game 2, Lakers-Jazz is one of them.