Clippers Beat Utah, 112-96; Win Six On Road Trip

Rowan Kavner

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH – Road sweet road.

The Clippers won six games on a seven-game road trip for the first time in team history, capped Saturday by a 112-96 win against the Jazz in which the Clippers led the whole way.

“We don’t get a trophy for it, but it’s still nice,” said head coach Doc Rivers. “I’d rather have it than not. That’s good.”

There were plenty of reasons for a letdown to occur in Utah: it was the second game of a back-to-back, it was the seventh game of one of the longest road trips of the year and it came one night after a win against a 12-3 Rockets team.

Rivers knew that could happen if the Clippers took the Jazz lightly, and he did something unorthodox to ensure it wouldn’t.

We talked about this one. We started in the locker room last night, which I rarely mention the next team after a game. I talked about it last night. We’ve had such a good trip, and we didn’t want to end it on a poor note. We just had to be mentally ready. I thought our starters at the beginning, they just set such a great tone for us. It was great.- Doc Rivers

So great, in fact, that Rivers was almost caught off guard.

There was no lull at the beginning of the game, which surprised Rivers and his coaching staff given the lengthiness of this trip and how close the Clippers were to heading home. The Clippers jumped out to a 23-11 lead in the first quarter and never trailed the rest of the way.

“For us to jump on them early was a surprise and nice,” Rivers said. “That allowed them to make a run and us to still have a lead. I thought that was honestly the difference in the game, is we got such a quick lead. The second unit did not play well in the first half, but the starters came back in and reestablished it.”

The Clippers got outscored in the second quarter, 32-27, but they’d built such a comfortable lead to start with that it didn’t matter. The Clippers led, 35-18, after the first quarter, behind 13 quick points from Blake Griffin. The Jazz had no answer for Griffin, who went 13-of-18 from the floor for 28 points and six rebounds, while Chris Paul recorded a double-double with 17 points and 10 assists.

“It shows how focused we were,” Paul said. “We talked about it before the jump ball. Me, Blake and (DeAndre Jordan) were like, ‘Make sure we set the tone, make sure we set the pace,’ because this is a team that’s played really well here at home.”

Paul said his legs felt fine despite the lengthy road trip, and when the Clippers needed energy, they pushed through. They didn’t want a letdown to happen, and they made sure it wouldn’t.

“We played so well on this trip, and this is, some of the guys were saying, like a trap game,” Paul said. “You’re thinking about heading home so much that you forget about the task at hand. But we made it a business trip.”

NOTES:

• The victory gave the Clippers their 11th straight win against the Jazz, matching their longest streak against an opponent in team history. They also had 11 straight wins against the Mavericks between 1992-94
• Back-to-backs are supposed to be detrimental, but the Clippers haven’t gotten the memo this year, as they improved to 5-0 in the second game of back-to-backs this season.
• The Clippers are now 10-1 this season when they score at least 100 points. They’re 1-4 when they don’t.
• The Clippers shot 56.3 percent from the floor. The Clippers’ bench outscored the Jazz bench, 38-26.
• The Clippers’ average scoring margin was the biggest all-time in the NBA on a road trip that went at least seven games. They outscored their opponents by more than 11.5 points per game. No team had reached the 11-point average on a seven-game road trip before.

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