This current group has never made it past round two of the playoffs and seem unlikely to this year seeing as they will have to go through the Warriors, who they have been utterly inept against for three years.
It's safe to say this is not how the Utah Jazz foresaw the first 20 seconds of the team's first playoff game against the Los Angeles Clippers going on Saturday.
Griffin was asked if the Clippers' game plan was thrown off course because it had been so devoted to having Gobert in the game.
However, that didn't stop the Jazz, as Joe Johnson buried a shot in the final seconds of the game to give Utah an edge over LA. Throwing rim-protection out the window against the frontline of DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin is a major no-no.
Johnson's buzzer-beater was part of a huge performance off the bench.
In the Western Conference, No. 1 Golden State will open against No. 8 Portland, No. 2 San Antonio faces No. 7 Memphis, No. 3 Houston gets No. 6 Oklahoma City and the Los Angeles Clippers and Utah Jazz will meet in the last quarterfinal. "I just wanted to get as close as I could to the basket, and it was a good thing it went down".
Craig Shakespeare addresses permanent Leicester job and Wes Morgan injury
For Leicester, Tuesday felt like a closing of a chapter, and the buildup to the quarterfinal felt like that with the theatrics. Brave Leicester's Champions League dream ended as they were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Atletico Madrid.
Gordan Hayward had 19 points and 10 rebounds for the Jazz. All-star forward Gordon Hayward and starting point guard George Hill are both unrestricted free agents this year (assuming Hayward opts out) and both will likely demand a hefty sum of money to stay. We'd all be annoyed in that situation. "Joe [Johnson] has been tremenouds. So, logically, he's out - we should be like 'Let's really go downhill.' We didn't go downhill a lot". Johnson had 14 of his 21 in the first half, then took it slow for most of the second half before it was money time in the fourth quarter. So the veteran didn't flinch with the clock ticking down and the game tied. They are not down about where they stand after the first game, which they lost on a last-second shot by Joe Johnson.
But the outcome was in doubt until Johnson's last shot. There's something to be said for calling time-out and there's something to be said for not calling the time-out. "That's a good week I have to get ready".
On the first play of the game, the Jazz lost potential Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert to a knee injury. The two combined for 36 points and Griffin was the leader at 26.
As the team that has allowed the most losses as a result of injuries to key players, it should come as no surprise the Jazz again had to deal with adversity on the night their team was the healthiest it's been in months.
I find the Clippers to be the most fascinating team in the playoffs. Teams typically respond poorly to traumatic injuries, especially injuries that transpire on the first play of a playoff game.
As mentioned, this is a comeback for the Jazz in the NBA Playoffs.
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