March 13th, 2017

The Clippers shot well in the 1st half, but the Jazz had a big 3rd quarter, and defeated LA 114-109 on Monday night in Salt Lake City.

Gordon Hayward had 27 points and George Hill added 19 as Utah defeated the Clippers for the first time in nine tries at home. Chris Paul had 33 points for LA in a losing effort.

The victory gave the Jazz a two-game lead over the Clippers in the race for the No. 4 playoff seed in the Western Conference and home-court advantage in the first round.

“They wanted this game,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. “They took the game. We played great in the first half and had a lead. I thought we should have had a bigger lead at halftime to be honest. I thought that was our chance to separate and we didn’t.”

The Clippers had a 56-49 lead at the half, behind 18 points from Paul, and 8 straight points from Austin Rivers.  It was just a 7 point lead despite shooting 56% from the field, and 50% from behind the arc.

The Jazz exploded for a 40 point quarter in the 3rd, which was a season-high for any quarter.  Hayward, whose back-to-back 3-pointers gave the Jazz a 103-92 lead. Hill finished with 19 points and Joe Ingles scored 18 off the bench.

Chris Paul was still fairly optimistic despite the loss.  “We got to get it together,” Paul said. “I’d much rather be playing the right way and be playing consistently on both ends and lose a couple of games, but know going into the playoffs we’ve got our principles. We’re still working on them.

“It sucks, but you got to do it. If we were ready for everything right now, we might be peaking too soon, so hopefully we hit it at the right time.”

The Clippers return home to face the Bucks on Wednesday at Staples Center.