Thanks to a huge second-half outing from Donovan Mitchell, the Utah Jazz have taken an early 1-0 lead over the Los Angeles Clippers. The Jazz rallied back from an early hole on Tuesday night to beat the Clippers 112-109 in Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinals series at Vivint Smart Home Arena, thanks largely to a 45-point night out of Mitchell.
Utah started out slow on Tuesday night, and at one point missed 21 straight shots in the first quarter. Though they managed to cut the game back to single digits by the end of the first period, the Clippers pushed ahead to a 13-point lead at the break.
Mitchell took over for the Jazz to start the second half, and single handedly kept them in the game. He opened the third quarter on a personal 10-2 run to cut the Clippers’ lead to just five only minutes into the period.
By the end of the third, thanks to 15 points from Mitchell and a huge 3-pointer from Clarkson in the final minute, the Jazz had tied things up 79-79 while outscoring the Clippers 32-19.
Finally, after a tight battle in the opening minutes of the fourth, the Jazz mounted a brief 7-0 run capped by a clutch deep 3-pointer from Bojan Bogdanovic to put them up by 10.
