The Utah Jazz are known to have one of the most difficult arenas for visiting teams to play in and on Tuesday night the Los Angeles Clippers found out the hard way. Whether it was the history of Energy Solutions Arena, their second game in a row, jet lag, missing guards Chris Paul and Mo Williams for another night, or the altitude the Clippers just didn’t look prepared to play an NBA basketball game.
The Clippers started off sluggish and found themselves playing catch up from the opening tip falling behind by double digits. By the end of the first quarter, the Jazz led 29-17. When 90% free throw shooting guard Chauncey Billups missed two from the line, they knew they were in for a long night.
Billups also missed all four of his 3-point attempts and finished with 10 points and 6 assists. The Clippers’ top performer was forward Blake Griffin, who racked up another double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds in 27 limited minutes. The starting unit tried to rally, but every time the lead was trimmed down, the Jazz answered back and led 52-41.
Clippers vs Jazz Postgame Recap
After intermission the story remained the same as the Jazz outplayed the Clippers in every way imaginable. The Clippers tried to close the gap by chucking up 20 three pointers and connecting on only 4 them. Forward Paul Milsap (20 points) and guard Devin Harris (13 points) ran the show for the Jazz starters to set the tempo for their bench players to continue the dismantling job of their visiting opponents. Salt Lake City turned into Lob City as the Jazz players put on their own display of rim shaking dunks.
By midway through the 3rd quarter the game appeared to be out of reach and Clippers head coach Vinny Del Negro pulled his squad back in to let the reserves play out the remainder of this blowout. By the 4th quarter the Clippers’ deficit teetered around 30 points. The Jazz cleared their bench as well with forward CJ Miles leading with way with 19 points and outscoring the Clippers second unit 54-32 overall.
The very few positives to take out of this blowout for the Clippers are that the starters got an extended rest and the play of recently picked up guard Courtney Fortson who finished with 13 points. The list of negatives could start with the 36.5% shooting and end with the lopsided 108-79 loss. The Jazz shot 47% and only committed 8 turnovers.
There was little time to feel sorry for themselves as the Clippers squad flew back to Los Angeles to prepare for the final game of their 3-in-a-row against the defending champion Dallas Mavericks at Staples Center with a 7:30pm tip-off.
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