The matchup of the Jazz and Clippers in the playoffs was put on ice.
Not by a 2-0 lead forced upon L.A., nor a subsequent 3-2 lead taken by the Dallas Mavericks in the first round, all while the Jazz were done six days ago. No. We’re talking really delayed, significantly delayed — by more than a year.
It was heading into the 2019-20 season where the groundwork for Jazz-Clippers was really laid and, yes, then delayed.
But the buildup goes back further than just that.
The shorter term …
Two offseasons ago, both the Jazz and the Clippers made their moves to enable what is about to happen now, each outfit already with a sound foundation, especially the Jazz. The Clippers’ moves and machinations were more … dramatic. They needed to be.
With Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell already in the fold, but still lacking help, the Jazz acquired Mike Conley and signed Bojan Bogdanovic. All the Clips did was haul in free agent Kawhi Leonard, a two-time NBA Finals MVP, and the traded-because-he-wanted-to-be Paul George, a longtime All-Star.
Remember that?
Leonard was coming off an NBA title with Toronto and deciding where, oh where he would go next. Those were exciting-but-nervous times for Raptors fans, who were doing what fans do — serenading King Kawhi outside his hotel, offering up free penthouses and whatever else, local restaurants dangling a lifetime of free meals if His Kawhiship would just stay put, all of it going on while he was in the midst of discussions with Raptors management.
Meanwhile, billboards were going up around Southern California, Clippers fans asking Leonard to come home to L.A. Yeah, he would come, all right. The problem for them was … would it be to the more famous L.A. team, the one with the other king, playing in the Staples Center?
Royal decisions, royal decisions.
Already then-Clippers coach Doc Rivers had been fined $50,000 for tampering, making public comments, as he had, comparing Leonard to Michael Jordan.
Turned out, the Clip Joint won out, signing Kawhi to a massive deal. And it got George, too, because George wished to play with Kawhi.
And just like that, that other team in L.A., the one that had for so many bygone years been a laughingstock, the one with an empty trophy case in its practice facility, but that had made strides in recent times, what with one of the NBA’s richest owners having taken over, would not be so “other,” not anymore.
Folks around the league, including Clippers fans, were crowning the Clips before the 2019-20 season even began. LeBron and Anthony Davis had other plans.
The Jazz, over that same span, bolstered their offensive attack with the addition of Conley and Bogdanovic, and many of the more savvy NBA observers took notice of those more subtle complements and thought highly of them.
Funny thing was, there was a bubble in the gas line — for both teams, and ultimately not enough gas in the bubble.
Bubble trouble. (OK, OK, apologies.)
The Jazz’s lag time had become apparent early last season, when Conley struggled to adjust to his new team. Ironically, those struggles were sucked out the giant vents at Vivint Arena, momentarily at least, when Conley shook off his mighty shooting funk with an impressive showing — 29 points on 11-for-17 shooting, 18 of them coming in the third quarter — against none other than the Clippers.
It didn’t last.
Conley labored, then got hurt, then came back, then got hurt again, then came back. Just as the Jazz were finding their form, a pandemic struck, and when the season was restarted at Disney, Bogdanovic had had surgery on his wrist, and … well, you know what happened.
The Jazz could not close out the Nuggets after being up, 3-1.
The same fate awaited the mentally-messed-over Clippers, who the Jazz would have played had they not stumbled and bumbled. The Clips also stumbled and bumbled to Denver, reportedly suffering from inner-team strife. They also were up, 3-1.
Weird.
Fast forward to … now, and we’ll watch what could have, what should have, what would have happened in September, had those twisted basketball minions — those Weird Sisters — not worked their wacky wonders last time around.
Maybe the unseen powers slammed on the brakes because they had this in mind, because this is better. Jazz-Clippers in the throes of a more legitimate postseason, not some tricked-up bubble arrangement.
The Nuggets could go ahead and have that.
Now, we get authentic home-and-home games in front of real fans in a real-as-real best-of-seven deal. The teams that had such high hopes among insiders and high expectations from so many outsiders last season are perched and positioned to knock each other around starting in Game 1 on Tuesday night.
It’s a beautiful thing.
A small-market team built dutifully through the draft, working to get and develop its stars — Mitchell and Gobert — by way of its own acumen, adding the aforementioned complements from elsewhere, against a large-market team that had some complements, but took its long-ago-established stars — Leonard and George — from other clubs.
Here it is then: Hooterville vs. Hollywood.
Each team has its burdens.
And that’s a combo-pack of the longer term and the shorter.
The Jazz, a team adored and well-established in its community, having been run well for decades, coming close to past titles, now trying to prove that their best-record in the regular season is no fluke. The Clippers, a team that’s always been second banana in its own city, no matter what it does, trying to put away decades of futility and show that, hey, their stars, their supporting cast, are better than not only the Jazz, but also the Lakers stars and supporting cast.
Neither the Jazz or the Clippers has ever won a championship.
Each of them has a bona fide shot now, each of them extremely talented.
All either of them has to do right away is beat the other.
Suh-weet.
It’s a face-off in a proper setting that was worth waiting for.
GORDON MONSON hosts “The Big Show” with Jake Scott weekdays from 2-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone, which is owned by the parent company that owns the Utah Jazz.
