Power struggle: Lakers overcome Jazz

Sorry, Utah Jazz fans. The team’s championship run came to an end early this morning.

And you can thank/blame the Los Angeles Lakers.

Sometime in the middle of the night — hours after the Jazz won their fifth game in a row on You Gotta Love It, Baby! Night — the Lakers wrestled away the coveted No. 1 spot in ESPN’s Hollinger Power Rankings.

The Jazz, who had a four-day run on top the world, are now only the second best team in the NBA, according to John Hollinger’s computer.

Oh, that fickle technology.

Apparently, an eight-point win at Philadelphia trumps Utah’s seven-point home win over the Kings sans stars Deron Wiliams and Carlos Boozer.

The Jazz, though, are less than 3/10ths of a point behind the No. 1 Lakers after victories in 9 of 10 games, and having a winning margin of plus-12.17 over the last 25 percent of the schedule.

Utah also remains about 2/10ths of a point ahead of third-place Cleveland.

The top three are nearly in a deadheat. The Lakers have a rating of 107.621, followed by Utah’s 107.349 and the Cavaliers’ 107.160. Atlanta (104.942), Orlando (104.841) and Denver (104.338) — all of whom have better records than the 28-18 Jazz — are the next in line.

Also according to Hollinger, the Jazz have pretty good odds to continue their strong run. His computer rankings claim the Jazz’s chances are as follows: Make playoffs (98.7 percent chance), win division (49.9 percent), make the NBA Finals (29.3 percent), win the NBA championship (17.0 percent) and win the draft lottery (3.1 percent).