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Clippers Pass First Test Of Season Against Jazz

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After starting the year 2-0 with wins over some western conference cellar dwellers the Los Angeles Clippers faced a tough matchup Tuesday night against the Utah Jazz.

Coming into the game Utah had beaten playoff hopefuls the Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder. Needless to say this wasn’t going to be a runaway win for the Clippers and that held to form until the final whistle.

Utah’s staple thus far has been their defense and Center Rudy Gobert has been its anchor. Safe to assume this game is one Gobert will want to forget pretty quickly. The Frenchman was given a hardy welcome from Clippers posterman Blake Griffin early on in the first quarter.

Griffin used those high-flying antics from early in the game to springboard the rest of his performance. A well rounded night from the forward saw him close out with a game-high 22 points to go with 9 rebounds and 6 assists.

While Griffin held down the low post, the Clippers guards came out aggressive against the new Jazz guard tandem. Patrick Beverly was pesky on the defensive end with 3 steals but his hustle wasn’t held to just one end of the court. He heated up from beyond the arc going 4-7 and wound up with 19 points on the night. Meanwhile Austin Rivers got his first start of the new year due to the injury to Milos Teodosic and was successful all night driving to the rim and used that success to put up a solid 19 points at the other guard spot.

Los Angeles used a massive third quarter energy boost to catapult them to this win. After a second quarter that saw the games pace shift in the favor of Utah, the halftime break proved to be just what the Clippers needed. Plenty of that energy for Los Angeles came from the other man in the post DeAndre Jordan. Jordan got himself a double-double and once again put up huge numbers on the boards with 18 rebounds to go with 11 points.

That strong quarter helped the team ride that momentum through the fourth quarter and get a 102-84 victory.

A great win for the Clippers against a Jazz team that has been tough in the early going for other strong teams in the Western Conference.

The Clippers will head to Portland to take on the Trailblazers Thursday at the Moda Center for their next matchup in what will be another tough test early on for Los Angeles.

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