The Los Angeles Clippers routed the Utah Jazz 131-102 on HBCU Night, eight Clippers players scored in the double digits in the matchup. Guard Terance Mann led all scorers with 19 points. Center Ivica Zubac and guard James Harden tied for 10 rebounds, and Harden made 15 assists.
Dorrough Music performs with members for the Devine 9 fraternities and sororities during halftime of the Clippers #HBCU night. I don’t own the rights to the music pic.twitter.com/SMUpu43ucf
— Amanda Scurlock (@Amandtastic) April 6, 2024
Utah guard Talen Horton-Tucker led the Jazz off the bench with 17 points, former UCLA stand-out Johnny Juzang tied with center Omer Yurtseven for seven rebounds.
Los Angeles earned their second win in 24 hours as they committed a 102-100 victory over the Denver Nuggets.
“Having a good game yesterday against the champs and coming back is validating,” Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue said. “Just validating the win from last night.”
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The Clippers have won five of their last six games. Lue noted that their effort on defense has been the key factor.
“I think our defense has picked up. It’s been a lot better, a lot better at paying attention to detail. Bringing the physicality,” Lue said. “Rebounding the ball well. But, our defense has been holding us up.”
The Clippers struck first and struck hard with a 17-4 run in the first four minutes of the game. Scoring accuracy by the Clippers helped them pull away early and keep the Jazz out of rhythm.
“I thought we just took care of business and we didn’t play around. We came out and just had force from the beginning of the game,” said Clippers forward Paul George.
George made 12 of his 14 points in the first quarter. Accurate perimeter shooting led the Clippers to go 11-19 from deep in the first half. They also outrebounded the Jazz 28-11 by that time.
Going into halftime, the Clippers were up 75-42; Zubac mentioned how going into the second half can have consequences.
“It’s challenging. It’s normal to relax, you go up 25, 30, whatever it was, you go up big, it’s normal to relax,” Zubac said. “[Tyronn] Lue came in and said, ‘there’s no adjustment, there’s nothing, we just got to be mentally locked in. We can’t relax, we got to come out of the half, play the right way, and take care of business.’”
Jazz bench players, including NBA Champ Horton-Tucker and guard Kris Dunn brought energy on offense throughout the matchup. Jazz coach Will Handy talked about the importance of winning five-minute segments.
“I felt like the second group and the one that started the 3rd quarter, that was their approach. They were hungry. They were desperate,” Handy said. “They just kept going and we strung together some good segments. That’s how we want to approach the game.”
Utah scored 37 points in the third quarter alone, five Jazz players reached double digits. Yet, the Clippers kept the game out of reach.
Clippers guard Norman Powell scored 18 points, guard Russell Westbrook made 17 points and Zubac made 12 points and three blocks.
The Clippers made the win sans forward Kawhi Leonard (right knee inflammation) and guard Joshua Primo (left ankle sprain.)
“Those are always the toughest to kind of be locked in on knowing that there is a group of guys that are out,” George said. “But I thought that we still did just a great job of you know just staying focused.”
The Clippers will face the Cleveland Cavaliers on April 7 at 12:30pm.
