Jazz Steal Game One From Clippers 97-95
- Updated: April 15, 2017
The Los Angeles Clippers just let one slip through their fingers. Stop me if you’ve heard this before.
The thing that hurts the most for Los Angeles, is that Utah was the team given the tough luck early on.
Just 17 seconds into this contest Utah Jazz Center and Defensive Player of the Year candidate Rudy Gobert knocked knees with Clippers forward Luc Mbah a Moute. Gobert limped off the floor and would not return. Gobert’s injury status moving forward in the series is unknown.
With the injury of Gobert, the game plan for Los Angeles was spelled out clearly. Work the ball inside and take advantage of the size mismatch you now have. Early on, that was working out. Blake Griffin finished the first quarter with 11 points and was able to maintain his solid performance throughout the contest finishing with 26.
As the game wore on, it seemed Los Angeles moved away from attacking the post. This strategy only seemed to hurt the team. Stepping out and not attacking the obvious weakness of the Jazz allowed their small ball lineup to make stops and even up the playing field. This especially hurt the Clippers as JJ Redick struggled mightily in his matchup with Joe Ingles. Ingles was glued to Redick all game long and it clearly frustrated the former Blue Devil. Redick only finished with 7 points going 3 of 6 from the field.
Chris Paul joined Redick in struggling early on but he turned it on in the second half. Paul began to attack the basket and play aggressively on both ends of the floor. He would end up with a double-double getting 25 points and 11 assists.
While Redick struggled and Paul shined it was the absence of another Clipper that became more and more apparent. Austin Rivers, who the team expects to be back before the end of the series, was sorely missed in this contest. The bench was never able to make an impact in the way the team needed with Mo Speights and Jamal Crawford leading them in scoring getting just 8.
In the end the Utah would be able to hold off Los Angeles and steal game 1 in Los Angeles on a final second shot by Joe Johnson 97-95.
This start was about as bad as the Clippers could have imagined. Losing game 1 to a Gobert-less Jazz team will not exactly stroke the team’s confidence moving forward in this series. Coach Rivers will have to come up with a better plan for game 2 as whatever he tried to do in this one just didn’t work.
Thanks for reading along Clipper Nation. Here’s to turning things around on Tuesday.
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