The team wearing blue uniforms barely resembled last year’s Los Angeles Clippers. The Jazz are not exactly their 2017 selves, either.
Yet even if the Jazz’s 125-113 victory was not as satisfying as it could have been after they led by 25 points in the third quarter, the old days made a nice comeback Saturday night at Vivint Smart Home Arena. The question is whether this snapshot of the NBA playoffs from nine months ago was a genuinely happy occasion or just a reminder of what the Jazz will be missing in 2018.
Last spring’s matchup with the Clippers produced the Jazz’s first playoff series victory in seven years, and who knows when their next breakthrough will come? Nothing like those memorable moments is in this April’s forecast, with the Jazz (19-27) trailing the Clippers by 4½ games for the Western Conference’s last playoff spot and Denver also ahead of them.
Asked before Saturday’s game if the Clippers’ visit reminded him of the playoff series, Jazz coach Quin Snyder said, “The teams are a little different.”
That’s true, and the Clippers (23-22) have weathered personnel changes and injuries better than the Jazz. Thanks to Blake Griffin’s injury during the series and the current absences of DeAndre Jordan and Austin Rivers, the visitors came to town for the first time this season with a completely new cast from Game 7 in Los Angeles.
Even so, the sight of those Clippers uniforms evoked some memories. That was a crazy series, with the road team winning five games, amid some indelible scenes from a Jazz perspective.
Who could forget Rudy Gobert crawling on the court after sustaining a knee injury in the first 10 seconds of Game 1, which ended with Joe Johnson’s drive for the game-winning floater at the buzzer? Or Gordon Hayward scoring 40 points in a Game 3 loss? Or Johnson personally delivering a Game 4 win with his shooting and passing in the fourth quarter? Or Rodney Hood’s big shots in Game 5, back in Los Angeles?
And then the Jazz missed their close-out opportunity in Game 6 at home, only to respond wonderfully at the Staples Center with Derrick Favors, George Hill and Hayward leading a poised performance in Game 7 with Gobert in serious foul trouble.
Yeah, good times.
Saturday’s exercise reprised some of the fun. Nearly every checkpoint of this game featured a season-best scoring total for the Jazz, as they hit 39 in the first quarter, 76 by halftime and 104 through three periods, then just missed their high of 126 — set against the Clippers in Los Angeles in late November. This showing after they posted 115 points in Friday’s loss to New York.
You know, I tried to tell everyone that once Gobert returned to the lineup from his latest injury, the Jazz suddenly would start scoring a bunch of points. “Rudy’s an offensive center,” Snyder said wryly, playing along in the postgame news conference. “I’d like to see him start defending.”
It’s also true that the Jazz scored 120 points in Wednesday’s win at Sacramento, just before Gobert came back. Against the Clippers, “Guys were committed to attacking,” Snyder said. “If you do that, you have an opportunity to break a defense down.”
Rookie guard Donovan Mitchell scored 23 points for the Jazz, on a night when Joe Ingles matched his career high of 21 points (without scoring in the game’s last 19 minutes) and Favors scored all of his 14 in the first half.
The Clippers lost some steam Saturday, after becoming one of the NBA’s best stories lately. They’ve climbed into playoff position with makeshift personnel and coaching adjustments by Doc Rivers, while the Jazz have faded during a difficult stretch of the schedule.
The biggest date looming for the Jazz this season is the NBA’s Feb. 8 trade deadline. That represents a chance to begin shaping themselves for another playoff run — in 2019.
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