The L.A. Clippers never have it easy. The Utah Jazz are every bit as good as them, and maybe better. We knew that coming into this series. But when Rudy Gobert goes out with a knee injury on the first play of the game, you expect L.A. to take advantage at home.
Joe Johnson gave the Clippers a very Clippers loss
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Nope.
Joe Johnson hit a floater at the buzzer to give Utah a 97-95 win in Game 1. It’s Joe’s 2,453rd game-winner (estimate) and a perfect explanation of why the Jazz signed him to join their otherwise fairly young team in the summer.
An MRI on Gobert revealed no structural ligament damage, but it’s unclear if or when we’ll get him back. The Clippers had some awful injury luck in the first round last year; while you hope everyone is healthy, L.A. really needs to stop looking gift horses in the mouth.
Meanwhile, Doc Rivers was in May form in the postgame press conference, calling a question from a reporter “the dumbest thing I have ever heard.” Instead of trying to embarrass a reporter, Doc should look within.
The Jazz lead 1-0. Game 2 is Tuesday.
Playoff scores ...
... And links galore
As you can see above, the Cavaliers escaped Game 1 with a narrow victory. C.J. Miles had a chance to win it on the last play, but missed his pull-up jumper as the Cavs had doubled Paul George at the top to force him to pass. George still thinks he should have gotten the ball back with the game on the line. LeBron disagrees. Meanwhile, Lance Stephenson was pretty darn good. What a world! The Cavs kept working to get Jeff Teague switched onto LeBron. Poor Jeff Teague.
Toronto had a classic Game 1 at-home performance, which is to say the Raptors stunk. The game was competitive until the fourth, when the wheels came completely off the Raps’ excellent offense and Giannis Antetokounmpo took over. Giannis wasn’t just the best player in this game: He looked like the best player who was in action anywhere in the league on Saturday. Look at these dunks! He’s here, folks. Also, Thon Maker showed out in his playoff debut. What a game!
The Spurs crushed the Grizzlies. This is not surprising. Marc Gasol was spectacular, and Vince Carter dunked in the playoffs at age 40, but it wasn’t nearly enough.
Sunday’s schedule:
Hawks at Wizards, 1 p.m. ET on TNT
Blazers at Warriors, 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC
Bulls at Celtics, 6:30 p.m. ET on TNT
Thunder at Rockets, 9 p.m. ET on TNT
The song chosen for this year’s ABC/ESPN playoff promo isn’t from Pitbull, the Black Eyed Peas or even The Roots: It’s Kendrick Lamar’s “Humble.” [nod of approval]
These Raptors playoff T-shirts should have been considered a bad omen, in retrospect. If this is a rebrand to become the Toronto Cthulhu, however, I’m on board.
As the Bucks poured it on late, Giannis celebrated a good block and got called for a sympathy technical. Let the Freak yell!
Happy 70th birthday to Kareem Abul-Jabbar! Here are 70 sky hooks to celebrate.
Speaking of New York’s favorite team, I wrote about Carmelo Anthony’s three options for dealing with the Knicks. I prefer The Captain America, but The Banana Boat would be something amazing.
Meanwhile, the players’ union complained to the league office about Phil Jackson’s comments about Carmelo and issued a sternly worded letter. Michele Roberts makes a great point: If players get sanctioned for demanding trades, why shouldn’t a franchise get sanctioned for publicly requesting a player to waive his no-trade clause (which is what Jackson essentially did)?
And finally: Here’s Adrian Wojnarowski’s excellent column on why Kristaps Porzingis is so mad at the Knicks.
D-League Digest’s Adam Johnson reports that the Clippers, one of the last D-League holdouts, are in talks to add a squad in Ontario or Bakersfield next season.
And finally: Our condolences to Isaiah Thomas’s family. His younger sister was killed in a car crash in Washington on Saturday morning. That family has shown resilience in the face of tragedy before, but that does not make Chyna’s death any less tragic. Our thoughts are with them.
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