The Utah Jazz, in their first meeting with the Los Angeles Clippers since they were bounced from the playoffs, won 124-103.
High notes
- The Jazz are really fortunate in the amount of offensive weapons that they have. If Donovan Mitchell isn’t hitting through part of the game, Bojan Bogdanovic can easily pick up the slack. If Joe Ingles doesn’t have it, Jordan Clarkson has no problem letting loose. Rudy Gobert cleans things up, Mike Conley is always going to contribute with scoring and playmaking, and everyone else in the rotation chips in. That’s exactly the kind of game the Jazz had on Wednesday night and they needed every bit of guys recognizing who was hot and at what moment.
- Before we get into what else the Jazz executed well against the Clippers, some credit needs to go to the Clippers. They were playing without Paul George, Nicolas Batum and Kawhi Leonard and they still had nine guys that were ready for the challenge of taking on the Jazz. The Clippers are, as they were last season and during the playoffs against the Jazz, a very deep team with a ton of options. Even with the offseason additions, they work perfectly for the Clippers. I mean, Eric Bledsoe balled out off the bench for them, finishing with 21 points. The Clippers are a very good team and one that the Jazz should still be wary of.
“They are a very good defensive team. Even without Kawhi, obviously who is elite, but without P.G. and Batum both, the way that they guard they’re one of the best defensive teams that we’ve seen. Fortunately we shot it pretty well tonight. But you can see why their defense is rated is high as it is. They really get after it.” — Jazz head coach Quin Snyder - That being said, the Jazz could have very easily gone into this game and let the emotions and feelings of necessary revenge get the best of them. Even when they started out the game struggling a little to get their shots to fall, they didn’t panic and they slowly started laying it on the Clippers. Even in the moments of mistakes — Royce O’Neale throws a bad lob, he steals the ball back two seconds later and finds Clarkson open for a trey, Conley lets a guy slip past him on one possession, he’s ready to pick the ball off on the next play when the Clippers tried to run the same play again. The Jazz have started to show a lot better focus lately and improve throughout the course of a game.
- Hassan Whiteside gave some really big minutes for the Jazz as he’s been doing lately. He had a stretch in the first half where it seemed like he was getting a hand on every single shot the Clippers put up.
- Bogdanovic and Clarkson have been very quietly having really well-rounded games lately where they are moving quickly, making fast reads and actually holding their own on the defensive end.
- Gobert dunked the ball so hard, so many times on Wednesday that it’s kind of surprising that thing still had air in it by the end of the night.
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Low notes
- Midway through the second quarter, the Jazz were on a fast break with numbers as Reggie Jackson was on the floor in the backcourt, and the Jazz couldn’t convert. Mitchell was short on a deep 3 and then Ingles’ try was way off the mark, fading to the left of the basket. It’s just really horrible to be playing five-on-four, to have two chances and to not get it done and be that far off the mark.
“I took one deep one and thought I should have moved in a little closer.” — Donovan Mitchell - I guess it was just an all around slow night for Ingles on the offensive end. He finished just 1-of-5, all of his shots 3-pointers. To his credit, he dished out five assists, but a couple of those he kind of lucked into.
Flat notes
- The Clippers actually cut the Jazz lead down to seven points in the fourth quarter, but it looked like they kind of gave up at some point. They let the Jazz walk all over them at the end of this one and that’s probably the biggest thing they’ll be thinking about when they rewatch the end of the game. They could have done better and should have but they didn’t seem like they wanted to.
- Clippers have a nasty habit of not being able to defend without fouling. Something to think about and keep an eye on, especially for whatever team ends up facing them in the postseason.