Written by Eric Freeman at YahooSports.com
The Utah Jazz evened their first-round series against the Los Angeles Clippers with a home win on Sunday, but the meaning of the victory felt much greater than the simple act of drawing even. With Rudy Gobert back in the lineup, Gordon Hayward momentarily limited due to food poisoning, and Blake Griffin out for the remainder of the playoffs, the Jazz managed to avoid a 3-1 hole and were suddenly the ascendant team in the series. A win in Tuesday night’s pivotal Game 5 would drive the Clippers to the brink of elimination and continue the momentum from the weekend.
It took some time to seal the result, but that’s exactly what Utah did in a huge 96-92 road win. The Jazz controlled the style of the game, a grind-it-out affair in which neither team topped 44 percent shooting from the floor and the Clippers offered an assist-to-turnover ratio of just 16-13. The visitors also showcased their biggest advantage in the series as it stands — far superior depth that the threadbare Clippers simply cannot match.
Hayward made that point clearly enough in his return to full availability. After playing only nine first-half minutes on Sunday, the All-Star wing saw the court for a game-high 41 minutes in which he put up a a team-high 27 points on efficient 9-of-16 shooting and added eight rebounds, four assists, and two steals. Hayward has occasionally shouldered too much of the responsibility of creating shots on this team, but on Tuesday he was merely the most active playmaker of many. Five Jazz players matched or exceeded Hayward’s assist total for 25 total on 35 made field goals. Additionally, reserve wings Joe Johnson and Rodney Hood accounted for a combined 30 points, or just shy of twice as many as the entire Clippers bench.
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