The Los Angeles Clippers are living dangerously in those playoffs, falling behind 2-0 in each of their first two series. Yet, here they are wrestling back control at the nick of time , beating the Jazz 118-104 on Monday night to their second-round series 2-2, as they did against the Mavericks in the first round.
Game 5 is Wednesday night in Utah.
It feels like all the momentum has swung the Clippers’ way. Kawhi Leonard, who has arguably been the best player in this postseason, was excellent on both ends, finishing with 31 points.
We are going to have to bring this P.G. roast to a finish. The man is acting terrific, and gently has been through most of the postseason, and he has for the majority of his career. He caused much of the mocking together with the self-proclaimed nickname along with the whole”that’s a bad shot” regular, but some high-profile stinkers aside, there is no way you do not need this on your team.
George finished with 31 points, nine rebounds and four assists. He was 4 for 10 from beyond the arc. He’s attacking with pressure and shooting confidence, along with the impressiveness of this can’t be understated given the spotlight that is on him. It feels as though most of social media is simply waiting for him to neglect, and he’s aware of it. He needs to be. It would be so easy for him to get hesitant. And yet he is playing as though he’s oblivious to it all. Good for him.
And good for the Clippers, who have apparently dialed in their championship formula. That doesn’t mean they are going to win it, but that is what gives them their best opportunity: Leonard and George play like celebrities as well as the defense mechanisms with switches, aggressive rotations and ball strain.
On Monday, the initial half decided the match. The Clippers were adamant Donovan Mitchell was not going to beat them. They trapped, doubled, collapsed on his drives and forced the Utah shooters to hit shots. They did not. Utah took 60 percent of its first-half shots from outside the arc, making only 33 percent of them. Together with his downhill energy cut off, Mitchell was forced behind the line too, taking 10 of his 14 first-half shots out of 3. He made only three of those 10.
Mitchell and the Jazz made their 3-point numbers seem better by the end of the game, but the harm was done . The Clippers ordered the terms. Mitchell has come to be a fantastic off-the-dribble 3-point shooter, but he’s actually killing you when he’s getting in the lane and the Jazz are hitting you with swing-swing strings which end with a clean 3-point appearance.
The Clippers did whatever they could to keep that from happening, and they were powerful. Mitchell didn’t get a lot of any scoring help if he needed it in the first half. From the time Joe Ingles and Bojan Bogdanovic found that their strokes, the shortage was to the 20s.
The Clippers obtained the peripheral performances that they needed. Marcus Morris, who was 5 for 5 in the first half, might be the largest X-factor remaining in these playoffs. When he is making 3s, the Clippers are an entirely different team with the focus that has to be paid to Leonard and George.
Ty Lue has had him from the rotation at points, and there is a reason he’s been getting roasted for that conclusion on Twitter. Mann scored three points in 15 minutes on Monday, and those amounts do nothing to catch his sway as a guardian and energy supplier. All these are the amounts to Concentrate on:
So, here we go, 2-2 with Game 5 on Thursday. There are no more secrets in this sequence. Each team has shown its hand, laid out its winning formula, and we see who executes better with it all on the line. The Jazz were the best team all season and still have to like their chances going home for the swing Game 5 and potentially for a Game . They must play faster before the Clippers can place their defense. Mitchell must attack before the doubles come. The shooters will need to knock down shots. I will be curious if Rudy Gobert plays a bigger role for a roller at Game 5; that’s 1 way to get into the teeth of the defense when the Clippers are shutting off openings.
However, the Clippers don’t need to rediscover anything. They’re the ones who are rolling, and they’re in familiar territory. They flirted with postseason death prior to and came out on top, and they’re doing it again. And now that they’ve sprung into life, it’s going to be difficult to put down them.
