LA Clippers Beat Jazz 99-91; Even Series At 1-1

The Utah Jazz pulled off the great escape in Game 1 with a buzzer beater but they were unable to replicate that performance as they lost by 99-91 in Game 2.

Griffin took a page out of Paul's repertoire and buried a 3-pointer from the left corner, extending the Clippers' lead to 97-88 with 1:35 to play. He finished with 18 points and 15 rebounds.

George Hill chipped in the with 12 points, seven rebounds and four assists and Rodney Hood scored 10 points off the bench in the defeat for Utah, which shot 45.7 percent and was outscored 60-38 in the paint.

All along, since the Clippers secured home-court advantage by winning the season series between the two teams, Jazz had no choice but to take one game at the Staples Center to advance to the second round.

To start the third quarter the Jazz cut the Clippers' lead to three with a 10-2 run with a unusual sequence of Boris Diaw playmaking, a steal, and sudden burst of offensive confidence until Chris Paul stepped in to stop the bleeding. "We can't go back and fix it so we just got to go with it and worry about Game 3". They support their team, which is good; know what I mean? He has seen everything that a team can throw at him.

The Clippers' starting lineup is the second best five-man lineup in the National Basketball Association and they were +12 tonight with the starters on the floor and -4 when they were off.

Snyder added: "They played with an intensity and level from the beginning of the game". As much as the Clippers played at the rim offensively, they still could never entirely shake the Jazz. However, despite building double-digit leads on several occasions, they couldn't shake the Jazz until late in the contest.

Blake Griffin was the human highlight reel for the first few years of his career. Thanks to the win in game two, they're at least guaranteed a return to Los Angeles. This has been a real problem for the Jazz in their five games versus the Clippers. Midway through the second quarter, Griffin came up the court a half-step ahead of Joe Ingles and drove hard through a narrow seam for another basket at the rim.

The Clippers led by as many as 13 in the first half before seizing a 51-42 lead at the break. They didn't walk through that door in game one. The Clippers outshot the Jazz 56.1 percent to 40.5 percent in the first half. Jordan was particularly effective against the Gobert-less front, punishing the Jazz on multiple lobs at the rim and making 9-of-11 shots overall.

After Tuesday's win, Clippers point guard Chris Paul was asked to clarify some comments about Utah's fans, when he called them "homers" on TNT, and Paul wasn't too thrilled that those comments were being taken as anything but positive.

"Just trying to be aggressive", Paul said. "Whether they scored, missed or whatnot, we just tried to keep the tempo and the pace up". Coach Quin Snyder couldn't have his team field the same defensive effort without their defensive anchor. "From what you kind of felt initially, we feel fortunate that there was nothing more serious because it certainly looked like that when it happened". I think there's an awareness that our guys have.

Attack the rack. With the way the Clippers played in Game 1, you would have hardly known Gobert wasn't protecting the paint.