Rivers had good reason to be grumpy: Utah Jazz forward Joe Johnson hit a buzzer-beater to hand his Los Angeles Clippers 97-95 loss in Game 1 of the teams' first-round National Basketball Association playoff series.
Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert has been listed as questionable to suit up for Game 2 against the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday. Gobert attempted to get back to his feet several times before being helped into the locker room by team mates.
There was no immediate word on his status.
Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers during Game 1 of their series versus the Utah Jazz. After the players made contact, Gobert fell to the court clutching his left leg. Johnson gives them a stretchier look at the four spot and nearly all of the Jazz' top lineups this year have featured him in some capacity. We now don't know if Rudy will return to this series, or when, but the Clippers should have had a playoff win tonight and they didn't. "We wanted the ball in Joe's hands and we got a switch".
Although this is their sixth consecutive postseason appearance, they have lost three times in the conference semifinals and twice in the first round since 2012.
After the injury, Jazz fans immediately assumed the worst: that Gobert had structural damage to his knee and his team was doomed.
Gordan Hayward had 19 points and 10 rebounds for the Jazz.
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Wenger continued: "We played with a desire to win the game with an offensive team". "We knew what we would face". We were very disappointed in that dressing room, like the fans are as well because we've let them down tonight.
Favors made one of two foul shots for a 95-93 lead with 18.7 seconds left, but Paul tied the score on a runner with 13 seconds remaining before Johnson delivered the game-winner.
And on top of that, the whole sequence is set up by Jazz coach Quin Snyder not calling timeout, giving Johnson time to exploit the matchup.
The game-decider from Game 1 was Iso Joe's eighth game-winning buzzer-beater in the last 10 years, the most in that span and twice as many as the next-best guy.
Gobert averaged 14.0 points and 12.8 rebounds in the regular season, and led the league in blocks at 2.64 per game.
As pessimistic as I am about the Clippers advancing, there really is still hope. "We've tried to adapt what we do to our personnel", Snyder said.
Compare that to Derrick Favors, who had only six rebounds despite 17 rebounding chances.
"We've got to be better", Paul said. LA has been building to this pressure-packed moment for years-its last stand before Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and J.J. Redick hit free agency-and had been rounding into good form in recent weeks. Both Paul and Griffin can play more effectively too: the former started cold, while the latter's athleticism and power should wear on Utah's smaller lineups.
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