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- James Harden led the Clippers with 41 points in a 144-107 win over Utah.
- The Clippers dominated early, outscoring the Jazz 44-20 in the first quarter.
- Jazz coach Will Hardy emphasized resilience and teamwork despite recent defensive struggles.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — At least Jazz fans didn't have to stay up late to know the result of Monday's game; it was all but over at the end of the first quarter.
Led by James Harden's 24 points, the Los Angeles Clippers had a 44-20 lead after the first 12 minutes. And, well, it never got closer after that as the Clippers routed Utah 144-107 at the Intuit Dome.
"We got our butts kicked in the game," Jazz coach Will Hardy said.
The Jazz have been the balm for the Clippers this season. Twice, Utah has rolled into Inglewood to face a team on a three-game losing streak; and twice, the Clippers used it as a get-right game.
Harden finished with 41 points, Norman Powell added 29, and Ivica Zubac had 19 points and 12 rebounds in the blowout. The three combined to shoot 31-for-44 on the night.
As a team, LA shot 60% from the field, 54% from 3-point range and led by as much as 42 points.
But everything after the first quarter was mostly just window dressing.
"The game was really decided in the first quarter is what it comes down to," Hardy said. "But, you know, the message to the team in a moment like this is we all get judged a lot, but we ultimately are going to get judged the most by how we act when it doesn't go our way."
The 144 points are the most given up by Utah this season, but it was far from an outlier. The Jazz have now allowed four of their last five opponents to score 130 or more points. The fifth game? Utah's 141-99 win over Portland — yeah, makes sense.
But, for the most part, not a lot has gone Utah's way lately — at least not defensively.
That all seemed to crescendo into a no-good, very-bad quarter. The Jazz fouled too much, had too many turnovers (stop us if you've heard that one before) and had no answer after a player got hot (that, too).
When a team gets outscored by a single player in a quarter (Harden led the Jazz 24-20 after the first 12 minutes), it's easy to know things aren't going too well.
"We anticipate that there's not always going to be perfect carryover after you say something once or even 10 times," Hardy said. "We have to stay on it every day. We've got to continue to teach it in a variety of ways, because people all learn a little bit differently."
Still, Hardy credited his team for at least staying engaged in the contest. He didn't see much poor body language, and saw a desire to try to get back into the game.
Markkanen had 8 of his 17 points in the second quarter as he tried to spark a bit of life. But every small ember was soon put out by another Clippers' 3-point shot or another Utah turnover.
In a season that was intentionally designed to bring about losses, nights like Monday's can happen — and probably will happen again. The hope is the Jazz can at least get something out of it.
"It's easy to be a good teammate, friend, brother, son, husband, boyfriend — all those things when things are going great," Hardy said. "But, ultimately, we'll find out who we really are by how we act when it's not going our way. The most important thing to me is that our team continues to carry themselves as a team in this moment.
"We stick together, we win together, we lose together, and we get back to work tomorrow and try to continue to improve as a group."
