Jazz Beat Clippers 117-95 For 4th Straight Victory
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Donovan Mitchell scored 19 points, Rudy Gobert had 15 point and 10 rebounds and the Utah Jazz beat the Los Angeles Clippers 117-95 on Thursday night for their fourth straight victory.
Derrick Favors scored 16 points, and Jonas Jerebko and Alec Burks each had 13.
The Clippers were playing for their playoff lives but the Jazz displayed the intensity and urgency from the opening tip and never trailed. L.A. trails eighth-place New Orleans by 2 1/2 games with just three to play.
The Jazz have pole position for home-court advantage in the Western Conference playoffs — win out and they will host at least the first round, an almost inconceivable notion before they went 27-5 the last ten-plus weeks.
Austin Rivers led Los Angeles with 19 points, and Montrezl Harrell had 17.
Clippers, who shot just 3 for 17 from beyond the arc, have lost three of four and have nearly been eliminated from the postseason.
The Jazz put the game away a 9-2 run early in the second half and led by as many as 30 in the fourth quarter.
The Clippers had trouble staying with Utah's multiple screen-and-roll actions and seemed to be chasing the ball all game.
Utah claimed the season series 3-1.
TIP-INS
Clippers: Tobias Harris got a technical with 5:58 left in the second quarter for arguing. ... Danilo Gallinari missed his fourth game in the last six with a sore right hand. ... The Clippers failed to reach the 100-point mark for just the second time in their last 12 games.
Jazz: Rubio, who missed the Memphis game with a sore left hamstring, scored nine points in the first quarter but did not return as his leg tightened. ... Jae Crowder also left the game in the first quarter after getting poked in the eye. ... Gobert got a technical in the second quarter. ... Mitchell had scored at least 20 points in his last 10 games but sat the last 14 minutes of the blowout.
GOOD FROM DEEP
Ingles became the first Jazz player to make 200 3-pointers in a season after hitting a jumper from beyond the arc in the opening minutes of the second half. The Aussie forward is fourth in the league in 3-point percentage at 44.2 coming into the game. Mitchell, who is six behind the all-time rookie record for 3-pointers made, has the second-best mark at 179 and counting. Both passed the 178 that Randy Foye made in the 2012-13 campaign.
UP NEXT
Clippers: Host Denver on Saturday.
Jazz: At Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday.
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