Clippers coach Doc Rivers said of the Jazz on Wednesday, “You knew they would get it back, you knew sometime they would get a rhythm.”
Technically, he uttered the words at his team’s morning shootaround, and in reference to Utah’s slow start to the season, but it turns out they were equally applicable to the game which followed later that night.
After mediocre play in the game’s first two quarters, the Jazz rallied back in the third, and held on for dear life in the fourth, but eventually prevailed 111-105 in a key Western Conference contest.
Facing a team that trailed them by just a half-game going into the matchup, the Jazz outscored L.A. 62-49 after halftime to get a little breathing room — though they had to overcome some questionable offense and a late Clippers free-throw onslaught to finally seal the deal.
The Jazz are now 34-26 on the season.
“That’s a big win for us. Everybody is so close right now in the standings,” said big man Derrick Favors. “We need every win that we can get, and hopefully it pays off for us in the end. That was a good win for us. I think everybody is proud of that win.”
Donovan Mitchell overcame some early shooting woes and some shaky late decision-making to total 32 points, four assists and four rebounds. Rudy Gobert overcame some foul trouble to add 20 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks. Favors contributed 13 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks.
And while the win was indeed big, Utah did suffer a loss in the game, as point guard Ricky Rubio went out after 24-plus minutes of action with left hamstring tightness and did not return. His status for Thursday night’s game in Denver was not immediately available.
On Wednesday night, however, backup Raul Neto did a solid job of replacing him, hitting 4 of 8 shots in totaling 10 points, five rebounds and two assists. His driving layup with 1:15 to play put the Jazz up 109-101, effectively giving them the buffer they needed to hang on at the end.
“Raul, in particular, came in and was terrific,” said Jazz coach Quin Snyder. “[He] just did a lot of little things and made a couple big plays.”
The Jazz as a whole, for that matter, did a lot of little things that ultimately made a big difference.
Though Utah didn’t shoot particularly well (41.3 percent for the game), the team did hit the boards hard, grabbing 56 rebounds total and 14 on the offensive end.
The Jazz also went to the free-throw line 32 times (making 24). Mitchell alone racked up 12 attempts from the line.
“Donovan attacked the rim, and when you do that, good things can happen,” Snyder said. “… It was good to see him doing that. It gives us a chance to get an offensive rebound; a lot of good things can happen when he attacks.”
Mitchell committed six turnovers in the game, but agreed with his coach that being aggressive helped swing the momentum.
“Just being able to attack,” Mitchell said. “Just going out there and finding ways to get in transition, get easy ones, get to the free-throw line.”
Meanwhile, after the Clippers started off fast, building a first-quarter lead of 29-12, they wound up shooting just 39.4 percent for the game, and also made only 5 of 26 from deep. Los Angeles’ two offensive stars, Danilo Gallinari and Lou Williams, each scored 18 points, but combined to shoot just 8 for 32 from the field.
Snyder praised his team’s defensive improvement as the game went on — particularly from the second unit — as the ultimate difference-maker.
“I thought we were moving the ball well early, and we were playing well, just defensively we weren’t getting stops,” he said. “When those [bench] guys came in, the level raised, and we started defending. As the game progressed, we had 11 blocks from our starting lineup, guys were active and helping each other, and our bench group got us going in that regard.”
