Star Donovan Mitchell had a night out Tuesday in the NBA playoffs to guide his Utah Jazz to a 112-109 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers to kick off their Western Conference semifinal series 1-0 up.
Mitchell had a very profitable offensive day with 45 points and the Jazz are looking to extend their perfect playoff history against the Clippers who have won three previous series in a row (1992, 1997 and 2017).
That’s the most playoff series wins for Utah without a loss to an opponent, and it’s the most setbacks for the Clippers without a win against an enemy.
Other standouts for Utah’s were Jordan Clarkson and Bosnian Bojan Bogdanovic, with 18 points each. Frenchman Rudy Gobert stood out in the rebounding section with 13 sacks under the boards.
The next game in this best-of-seven series will be on Thursday at the Jazz headquarters.
Mitchell also scored a basket with just over a minute to go to score the 112 point, while Paul George immediately hit a triple with 37 seconds left to bring the score closer to 112-109, but it did not reach the Los Angeles team.
Mitchell has averaged 33.45 points per game in the past two postseason, second-highest in the NBA, behind Slovenian Luka Doncic (33.54).
For the Clippers the best were Kawhi Leonard, with 23 points and seven rebounds, and George with 20 and 11 sacks. Luke Kennard came off the bench for the Clippers for a total of 18 cards.
Leonard was coming off hitting 61.2% of his shots against the Mavericks in the first round, the highest by a player in a postseason series since Shaquille O’Neal made 66% for the Magic against the Pacers in the Finals. 1995 Eastern Conference.
The Clippers were very inspired by an excellent seventh game in the previous stage against the Mavericks with 24 of 24 free throws, the most free throws without fail in an NBA playoff game since the Spurs were 25-25. against Portland in Game 3 of the 2014 Western Conference Semifinals.
But the Jazz had scored 120 or more points in each of their last four playoff games, tying the longest streak in team playoff history. Utah has had five straight 120+ point games in the regular season just twice, in 1982 and 1984. (GG) (AFP)