Made shots aren’t going to win the Utah Jazz a Game 6 in Los Angeles on Friday night.
Their trademark ball movement, the pretty offensive sets. The “blender,” the offensive weaponry. Throw all of that out of the window. It means nothing when the Jazz hit Staples Center.
If there is a Game 7 on Sunday afternoon, it will be because the Utah Jazz for one game did what they haven’t done in this series: get gritty for 48 minutes. It will be because they shoved the Clippers around, for once, and didn’t allow themselves to be punked. It will be because they hit first and weren’t reactionary. And it will be because they were the tougher team and not the team walking solemnly to the locker room after the final buzzer.
The Utah Jazz were handled on Wednesday night in Game 5 at Vivint Smart Home Arena. The final was 119-111, but it felt so much worse than that. For much of this one, the Jazz were outplayed.
