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Clippers vs Jazz Preview: A Must Win Game
It might sound crazy to label this game a “must win” situation in mid-November, but for a Clippers team that is going to be less talented than most of their opponents this season, a game against the bottom-feeding Jazz truly is a game they have to secure.
Game Information
Where: Intuit Dome, Inglewood, California
When: 7:30 PM PT
How to Watch: FanDuel Sports SoCal, AM 570
Projected Starting Lineups
Jazz: Keyonte George – Collin Sexton – Lauri Markkanen – John Collins – Kyle Filipowski
Clippers: James Harden – Norman Powell – Kris Dunn – Derrick Jones Jr. – Ivica Zubac
Injuries
Jazz: Taylor Hendricks Out (Leg), Walker Kessler Questionable (Hip)
Clippers: Kawhi Leonard Out (Knee), PJ Tucker Out (Away from team), Cam Christie Out (G-League), Trentyn Flowers Out (G-League)
The Big Picture
The Clippers have dropped three straight games, falling from
the high of 6-4 to a middling 6-7. It’s the way they have lost those three
games that have been concerning, not necessarily the losses themselves –
against simply better teams in the Thunder and Rockets (twice) – that have been
concerning. The Clippers’ defense has fallen off significantly, getting carved
up in each of those games by teams either missing a lot of players (Thunder) or
possessing just an average offense (Rockets). Even more concerning, the two players
who played the largest roles in the Clippers’ promising start – Ivica Zubac and
Norm Powell – fell down to earth significantly. If Norm isn’t scoring an
efficient 20+ points per game, and Zu isn’t consistently playing in a dominant
two-way capacity, the Clippers simply don’t have enough juice on either end of
the court. They need to get those two, if not up to the level of the first 10
games, at least closer to that.
The Antagonist
The Jazz are not only the worst team in the Western Conference by record (3-9), they are also worst in Net Rating by a significant margin (-11.1, with the next lowest being the injury-ravaged Pelicans at -8.9). The Jazz have the second-worst defense and fourth-worst offense in the entire NBA. The most that can be said about them is they play fast and have a few individually dangerous scorers, especially Lauri Markkanen and Collin Sexton. Still, this is a team that wanted to be bad, is bad, and should be easy prey on an average night for any NBA team worth their salt.
Notes
Rest Advantage: The Jazz are not only a worse team than the Clippers, but are at a severe rest disadvantage, being on the second night of a back-to-back and playing their third game in four days. The Clippers last played on Friday and are at home after a rough two games in Houston. If the Clippers can get a big lead on the Jazz early, the tired Jazz probably won’t have the legs to get back into things. Hopefully the Clippers come out hot and looking for blood after getting jumped by opposing teams in the past few games.
Mo Bamba’s Debut?: After missing the first 13 games of the season with a knee injury, backup center Mo Bamba is available. And not a moment too soon. Kai Jones, despite playing hard and having a nice play here or there due to sheer athleticism, has not earned the trust of the coaching staff, largely because he’s never in the right position and can’t set screens or do anything on offense that’s not finishing open dunks. The Clippers’ small-ball units have had a couple nice stretches, but have, as usual, been underwhelming on the glass and on offense without being dominant on defense. Mo, even though he’s been a largely “meh” player in his NBA career, should hopefully be an improvement on Kai and the Clippers’ micro-ball units. I’m very interested to see how many minutes he gets in his first game back.