The Clippers finished off their homestand undefeated by taking care of the Jazz, 105-96. Here’s Nick Flynt with the Lob City Ledger over at ESPNLA.com:
In the first half, Griffin dominated his matchup against Paul Millsap offensively by forcing the issue in the post with awkward flip shots and quick passes when the defense sagged to help. In the second half, however, Griffin found himself frustrated on both ends against Millsap’s raised aggression. Overall, a solid but unbalanced effort.
While Paul usually spends the first three quarters of games leisurely setting up his teammates, tonight he looked to push the ball and score early and often. Abusing the likes of Earl Watson and whichever big man ended up switched on to him off of pick-and-roll action, Paul hit from midrange time after time throughout the contest.
Doing most of his damage in the first half, Foye hit the open shots the Clippers need from him to space the floor. He also dished well when hard closeouts started coming. Defensively, Foye was able to hide against the Jazz’s poor options at shooting guard. When Foye plays the way he did tonight, the Clippers are hard to beat.
The Clippers opened the game with a massive 38-point first quarter. The team showed aggression in the passing lanes on the defensive end that led to layups as well as open 3-point looks (the Clippers hit more than 60 percent of their 3-pointers in the quarter). With the tone set for the game, the Clips never looked back.
Utah came into the game off a loss to the Sacramento Kings and seemed to be falling out of the Western Conference playoff picture. The bad play continued against the Clippers. Unable to contain dribble penetration or Blake Griffin post-ups (leading to open 3-point looks as well), the Jazz found themselves struggling to keep pace despite giving good effort.
