Though it will be a tough game, the Utah Jazz are capable of defeating the Los Angeles Clippers in Sunday’s afternoon contest if they have success in a few key areas.
After a much-needed win over the Los Angeles Lakers in Friday’s home opener, the Utah Jazz are heading to the Staples Center for a Sunday afternoon bout against the Clippers.
And unfortunately for the Jazz, who narrowly defeated a young Laker team, the Clippers are without a doubt the more daunting of the two LA squads.
I’ve already discussed how Utah will have to do better than just put in a solid fourth quarter like they did at home against the Lakers if they hope to defeat the Clippers. But the good news is that I also truly believe they are equipped to do so.
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Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and the Clippers are a good team, but with greater depth and an arguably better defense, the Jazz should certainly have plenty of opportunity to compete and win. The Jazz went 1-2 against them last season, but prevailed 2-0 in this year’s preseason, so they should be headed into this game with some confidence.
To emerge victorious, here are the critical keys to the game that the Jazz will have to address.
Key Matchup – George Hill and Chris Paul
It’s no secret that one of the reasons the Jazz picked up George Hill was to have an elite defender that could help them compete against the onslaught of top-tier point guard talent in the Western Conference. Unfortunately, he got lit up quite a bit in the season opener by All-Star Damian Lillard who put up 39 points on 13-of-20 shooting.
He’ll have a chance to bounce back against another one of the best point guards in the league in Chris Paul. Hill shut down the Lakers’ second year point guard D’Angelo Russell, but of course defending a star like Paul is a completely different challenge. Luckily, it’s one that Hill should most certainly be up to.
If George Hill can have another stellar offensive night like he did against the Lakers, it will be a great bonus, but the most important thing for him to do to help the Jazz is to shut down Chris Paul. Paul logged an impressive 27 points in the Clippers’ season opener against Portland and will no doubt look to have another big night in the contest against the Jazz.
For Utah to have a chance, Hill will need to slow down and frustrate Paul who isn’t just a great scorer, but also the key facilitator and floor general for the Clippers. If Hill puts up a stirring defensive performance and gets Paul out of sync, it will seriously hinder the workings of the Clippers as a whole.
Key Stat – Three-Point Percentage
In both match-ups so far this season, the Jazz have struggled not only to shoot the three-ball but also to contain it on the defensive end. Portland shot an absolutely blistering 68.4 percent (13-of-19) from deep compared to Utah’s respectable but not great 33.3 percent (8-of-24).
That huge discrepancy was obviously the difference in the game as a few made/missed threes either way could have completely changed the outcome of the game.
In the narrow win over the Lakers, Utah’s perimeter D was better, holding LA to 39.1 percent from behind the arc (which in reality is still too high for what this team is capable of), but they were dismal on their own end shooting just 24 percent for the game.
The Clippers themselves shot just 27.6 percent from deep in their season opener against Portland, but make no mistake that this is a prolific three-point shooting team and Utah will have to do a much better job of protecting the perimeter. With the likes of Chris Paul, J.J. Redick, Jamal Crawford, Marreese Speights, and heck, even Blake Griffin who’s putting up threes now, this is an area where Utah must improve.
Key Performer – Derrick Favors
I’m predicting Derrick Favors to be the lead guy for the Jazz on Sunday. He looked a little rusty at first in his 2016-17 debut given he hadn’t played in about a month, but once he got going, we saw a side of Derrick Favors that he hasn’t exhibited much. He was full of emotion, intensity and passion and truly looked every bit the leader that the Jazz needed.
With a solid 15-point, 9-rebound outing in just 20 minutes of play in Friday’s win, Favors should be feeling extremely confident. The level of competition will certainly be elevated as he’ll be forced to take on the likes of Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan in the paint, but if he brings the attitude and effort that he had against the Lakers, it’s Griffin and Jordan who should be worried about the match-up.
Assuming he’s feeling good and isn’t on any kind of more strict minutes restriction than he was on Friday, I’m expecting a double-double out of Favors. Hopefully we can also start to see some perfectly executed Hill to Faves pick-and-rolls that will get us even more amped for the future of this team this season.
Prediction – Jazz 91, Clippers 88
In my Week One Outlook and Predictions piece that went up prior to the start of the season opener, I had the Jazz squeaking out a hard-fought 91-88 victory over the Clippers in this game. Although after Friday’s too close for comfort victory I’m feeling a little more skeptical about this, I’m going to keep up that optimism and leave my prediction the same heading into the match-up.
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It’s the home opener for the Clippers, so you know that Staples Center is going to be rocking, but if the Jazz can contain Chris Paul, shore up their performance on the perimeter and get a big night out of Derrick Favors they’ll put themselves in a great position to win the game.
All stats courtesy of NBA.com