Clippers and Jazz take it to the limit
LOS ANGELES — The opening round of the NBA playoffs is down to the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Clippers, the only series to be extended to seven games.
The Clippers can finish off the Jazz Sunday and advance to the Western Conference semifinals against Golden State, which has been waiting since Wednesday to find out its next opponent.
Whoever wins won’t have any rest. The Warriors host the series opener Tuesday.
Now in his 12th season, nine-time Clippers All-Star Chris Paul has yet to play in a conference finals.
“He is as competitive of a human being that I’ve ever been around,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. “When you put that with the talent and will, that’s why he has performances like this in big games.”
Paul had 28 points, eight assists, three rebounds and four turnovers playing 38 minutes in a 98-93 win Friday night in Salt Lake City.
“Doc said go out there and give yourself a chance,” Paul said.
During a timeout, he looked over at 39-year-old teammate Paul Pierce, who plans to retire at the end of the season, his 19th.
“I said, ‘You’re not ending your career in Utah,’” Paul said. “We just said we’re going to keep this thing going for him.”
With Paul doing the heavy lifting, Jamal Crawford, Luc Mbah a Moute and Austin Rivers combined to score 38 points while making up for the loss of Blake Griffin, who is out for the rest of the season with a bigtoe injury.
Without Griffin, Paul has been forced into doing the majority of the ball handling, and he appeared tired near the end of the Clippers’ loss in Game 5.
Doc Rivers changed things up in Game 6 and surrounded Paul with fellow guards Crawford, Austin Rivers and Raymond Felton.
“That helped a lot,” Paul said.
The first six games between the fourth-seeded Clippers and No. 5 Utah have been decided by eight points or fewer.
It’s been so close that the teams are averaging 98 points each. They had identical 51-31 records in the regular season.
“This series has been a roller coaster for both teams,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said.
The Clippers can draw on past experience heading into Game 7.
Two years ago, they won an elimination game in San Antonio and came home to win Game 7 by two points in the first round.
In 2014, they beat the Warriors in a Game 7 at home in the first round.
The young Jazz team isn’t as playoff-tested, which is why they brought in veterans Joe Johnson, Boris Diaw and George Hill to surround Gordon Hayward and Joe Ingles.
“We know what they’re going to run and they know what we’re going to run,” Hayward said.
“It’s about execution. It’s about who wants it more, so we’ve got to be the team that wants it more.”
So the Jazz will test themselves in their first Game 7 in 10 years.
The 2006-07 team led by Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer rallied for a victory in Houston that symbolized the franchise’s temporary rebirth after the era of legendary stars John Stockton and Karl Malone ended four years earlier.
The Williams/Boozer collaboration concluded in 2010, marking the beginning of another rebuilding job that took considerably longer.
General Manager Dennis Lindsey’s building project has delivered a partial payoff to Jazz fans, including Johnson’s winning shot in Game 1 in Los Angeles — the franchise’s first victory in a playoff game in seven years.
“We’ve come a long way from where we were three years ago,” Hayward said.
“If you had told me at the beginning of the year you’d be in a Game 7 against the Clippers in L.A., I’d have been like, ‘Bring it on.’ “
Jazz center Rudy Gobert said he will be fine to play Sunday despite a injured ankle.
He turned the ankle attempting to box out on the free-throw line in the third quarter of Game 6 and tried to run the injury off, but played sparingly down the stretch.
“I sprained it on somebody’s foot,” Gobert said. “I tried to run through it, but that didn’t work out. I’ve had a lot of sprained ankles before. I will be good.”
It wasn’t the first time Gobert has had health issues in this series.
He hyperextended his knee 11 seconds into Game 1 and missed most of the first three games.
If they lose to the Clippers, a summer of uncertainty will commence.