April 15, 2017
Joe Johnson hit a game-winning runner that bounced into the hoop to give the Utah Jazz a 97-95 victory over the Clippers in Game 1 of their 1st round series at Staples Center on Saturday night. Utah has a 1-0 lead in the best of seven series.
“I just wanted to get as close as I could to the basket, and it was a good thing it went down,” Johnson said.
Johnson scored 21 points on the night off the bench to lead the Jazz. The Clippers were led by Blake Griffin, who scored 26 points and pulled down 7 rebounds. Chris Paul had 25 points, 11 assists, and 7 rebounds.
Paul banked in a floater with 13 seconds left in the 4th quarter to tie the game at 95-95. The Jazz didn’t call a timeout, and went the other way with a chance to win the game. The left Johnson isolated against Jamal Crawford, who drove the lane for the game-winner.
“We’ve got to be better,” Paul said. “They played harder, they were more physical.”
The Jazz lost starting center Rudy Gobert just 18 seconds into the game, when he bumped knees with Luc Richard Mbah a Moute. Gobert left the game after being helped into the locker room. The good news for the Jazz is that an MRI exam showed no structural damage to the knee, and Gobert was diagnosed with a hyperextension.
Utah outscored the Clippers 16-10 to open the third, before Crawford’s jumper put the Clips ahead 70-69. Gordon Hayward, who finished the game with 19 points, scored 6 straight points to give the Jazz a 74-70 lead heading into the 4th quarter.
In the first half neither team led by more than 6 points. The Jazz went on a 14-2 run in the 2nd quarter to take their own 6-point lead. However, the Clips answered with a 14-8 spurt of their own.
The real difference in the game was the benches. The Clippers got just 20 points from their bench, and only 8 from Jamal Crawford. The Jazz on the other hand, received 46 points from their reserves.
Now the Clips will have to fight to regain home court advantage. “We fought until the end of the year to get it, and now we’ve given it right back,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said.
Game 2 will be on Tuesday night at Staples Center, where the Clips will try to even the series before heading to Utah.