JAZZ FEAST ON HAPLESS CLIPPERS

The Utah Jazz have bumbled down the stretch toward the NBA playoffs, and after a horrible showing at home against Golden State over the weekend were in a position where they desperately needed a win.  There’s no better prescription in that situation that a visit by the Los Angeles Clippers, but even so Utah knew that they couldn’t take a win for granted and the Jazz responded with one of their best all around games of the past couple of months.   Utah came out strong from the start and used tenacious defense to run the Clippers off of the EnergySolutions Arena court en route to a 106-85 victory.

Mired in 8^th place with only a slim chance of improving their playoff seeding with one game remaining, Jazz point guard Deron Williams didn’t mince words in his postgame comments on the victory:

"We just needed a win. I don't care who it was against or how many points, we just needed a win."

The Jazz will need to win their final game—against the Lakers in Los Angeles—and hope that the Mavs and Hornets lose to avoid opening the playoffs on the road against Kobe and company.  Williams was equally as candid about the situation they now face:

"We put ourselves in that position. We had some ballgames where we should have won."

Carlos Boozer, who turned in one of his best all around games since returning from injury, knows what his team needs to do to be successful:

"For us to have a chance to win, we've got to play defense like we did tonight. We hustled out there. We dove for loose balls. We were scrappy."

Boozer’s ‘double/double’ included a team high 20 points to go with 13 rebounds.  Reserve power forward Paul Milsap also turned the feat, adding 19 points and 11 boards.  Deron Williams and Andrei Kirilenko each contributed 17 points, while Mehmet Okur’s 12 point outing rounded out Utah’s double digit scorers.  The Clippers also had a pair of ‘double/doubles’, with Marcus Camby scoring 17 points and pulling down 10 boards and reserve DeAndre Jordan went for 16 points and 11 rebounds.  Eric Gordon added 16 and Chris Kaman 12 in a losing cause.

As noted, the Jazz will conclude their regular season in Los Angeles against the Lakers on Wednesday needing a win to have any hope of backing into the 7^th place slot in the Western Conference.  They may be fortunate to catch a Lakers team looking to rest their starters in advance of the playoffs, although coach Phil Jackson hasn’t publicly said that will be the case.  The Clippers will finish their season at home on Wednesday in the epitome of a ‘meaningless game’ against another losing team in the Oklahoma City Thunder.