SALT LAKE CITY, UT — The Clippers lead by 14 points at halftime, however Game 1 went down to the wire thanks to clutch shooting by Donovan Mitchell who finished with 45 points in a 112-109 Utah Jazz win.
A loss that don’t have the Clippers rattled yet focused on cleaning up the mistakes that cost them the game, and an opportunity to steal home court from the Jazz.
It appeared after battling the Dallas Mavericks in a grueling seven game series on Sunday in Los Angeles, then had to fly to Salt Lake City for a game on Tuesday proved to be taxing for the Clippers as they ran out of gas. Thanks to a flat third quarter the Jazz took advantage of the situation led by Mitchell.
“We were the attackers, we were the aggressors,” Clippers forward Paul George said who finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds. “We just had a bad third quarter.”
Mitchell’s 16 point third quarter led the serge for the Jazz, as Mitchell listened to timely advice from head coach Quin Snyder and minority owner and three time champion Dwyane Wade on the sideline.
“And there was situations where I was just being lazy and letting that fatigue kind of get to me,” Mitchell said. “So I came in at halftime and I just said, Look, I’m just going to have to find a way.”
Mitchell took control of his team and never looked back in the second half until the final buzzer sounded.
“He was just very aggressive,” Kawhi Leonard said who finished 23 points in the loss. “He’s going to keep shooting the ball and get his teammates involved. We all just have to take the challenge and try to slow him down.”
The Clippers had a timeout in the final seconds of the fourth quarter and a chance to tie, but elected to keep the ball in play. Joe Ingles ran to defend Leonard near the three-point line before Leonard passed to Morris, who was blocked by Rudy Gobert to ensure a victory for Utah.
Clippers head coach Ty Lue said he elected not to take a timeout so that the Jazz couldn’t substitute Gobert for a quicker and smaller defender.
“Our guys coming off the bench; the way they played and getting a chance to see who can play in series and who can’t in Game 1 and I thought we did a great job in the first half,” Lue said as they prepare for Game 2. “We came out in the third quarter a little sluggish not making the right play and not making the right shots and they got going offensively. Just cleaning that up, and like I said, we’ll be better going into Game 2.”
Jazz host the Clippers in Game 2 on Thursday night at 7PM PT on ESPN.
