The Utah Jazz will visit the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center on Friday night.

The Jazz (8-10) will take to the road for Friday's matchup. Given the team's 2-5 record on its home court, that may not be such a bad thing. Utah's early struggles have largely been a product of sub-par defense, an unusual trend for a team that has made stifling defensive play its identity over the last few seasons. Last year, center Rudy Gobert won Defensive Player of the Year by anchoring a Jazz defense that ranked top-five in the league in defensive rating. This year, however, the Jazz rank just 17th in defensive rating, and are allowing opponents to shoot 47.9 percent from the field - the third-highest of any team in the league. That became a problem in the team's most recent loss, a 119-110 defeat at the hands of Sacramento. In the loss, the Jazz allowed Sacramento to shoot over 51 percent from the field, including an 11-of-15 shooting night from big man Willie Cauley-Stein. Even a 35-point scoring outburst from star guard Donovan Mitchell could not put Utah over the edge. The team will look to bounce back as they take on another tough, up-tempo offense in Los Angeles.

The Lakers (10-7), on the contrary, have been on a roll recently. LA is 8-2 in its last 10 games and is scoring a whopping 116.2 points per game, good for fourth in the league. Of course, much of that success can be attributed to superstar forward LeBron James, who ranks second in the league in scoring at 28.9 points per game. James has been far from the only factor in the Lakers' recovery from their slow start, though. Sophomore forward Kyle Kuzma is building on his rookie success with another stellar season, averaging 16.6 points per game. The Lakers are fresh off yet another win, which came against James' former team in Cleveland.