On Utah’s side, the concern before tipoff against the Clippers on Friday night was how the Jazz would be able to handle the absences of both Donovan Mitchell (25.7 points per game) and Bojan Bogdanovic (18.1), both sidelined with calf strains.
“Obviously, without Donovan and Bojan, we’ve got to score somewhere,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said, via Zoom. “There’s a lot of unfamiliar territory there, but (the other Jazz players) need to communicate with each other and figure it out.”
One might have expected that the Clippers would have figured out how to operate successfully without their top scorers.
After all, they’ve been playing all season without Kawhi Leonard (ACL), all but 26 games without fellow All-Star Paul George (elbow) and now 16 games without Norman Powell since his toe was broken three games after arriving in a trade.
But the short-handed Jazz proved to be just fine. It was the Clippers who appeared overwhelmed and out of sorts, as they got pummeled, 121-92, before a sellout crowd of 18,306 at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City.
The loss – the Clippers’ third in a row and sixth in their past eight games – dropped them to 36-37, below .500 for the first time since Feb. 17, when a win against the Houston Rockets had pulled them to 30-31. They have nine regular-season games remaining before the play-in tournament begins.
There were bad omens early for the Clippers, who had to call a timeout fewer than two minutes into the game, the Jazz (44-26 – and 26-11 at home) having hit all four of their shots to take a 10-2 lead. And then Marcus Morris Sr. missed a free throw, snapping his streak of 43 consecutive makes from the stripe.
After that, the Clipper struggled to slow the short-handed Jazz, who sped away with a 41-14 second quarter – despite the fact that they also were missing Hassan Whiteside (non-COVID illness), Udoka Azubuike (right ankle sprain), Trent Forrest (right wrist sprain) and Danuel House (left knee bone bruise).
And the Clippers struggled just as mightily to score themselves, shooting just 36% (31 for 86).
The Clippers were just 29.7% (19 for 64) through three quarters, when the Jazz’s 37-point halftime lead remained intact entering the final 12 minutes of action.
This time, there would be no monumental rally from Coach Tyronn Lue’s team, which has four 20-plus point comebacks this season – including one from 35 points down, one shy of the NBA record established by Utah in 1996.
But the Clippers didn’t have a player in score double figures until the 10:35 mark of the fourth quarter, when Robert Covington connected on a pull-up jumper to bring his tally to 11 points – with the Clippers trailing 98-60.
Covington finished with 18 points, Terance Mann had 14, Luke Kennard 13 and Semi Ojeleye 13 – all off the bench. On his 25th birthday, center Ivica Zubac gave his team nine points and six rebounds in 21 minutes.
Utah’s lead grew to as large as 41 points in the fourth quarter, but the Clippers narrowed the large margin to 29, outscoring their hosts 34-26.
Without their usual offensive threats, the Jazz had five players score in double figures, led by Jared Butler (21 points) and Jordan Clarkson (20).
Rudy Gobert added 19 points – and the three-time All-Star center also grabbed 16 rebounds Friday, exceeding his league-leading average of 14.8, half of them coming on the offensive end and helping the Jazz to a massive 24-10 advantage in second-chance points.
The Clippers’ next game is not until Tuesday in Denver, so they planned to travel back to L.A., where they expected to practice at least once.
More to come on this story.