Who will win this series?
The Los Angeles Clippers are coming off of a series that they had to give it their all, meanwhile the Utah Jazz have been resting for the past week or so and won the regular season series over the Clippers 2-1. Given the Clippers’ struggles as of late and the Jazz looking dominant, I think it is safe to say that the Jazz will win this series fairly easily in five or six games.
I am leaning more towards saying that Utah will send the Clippers packing in five games, but you just never know if Kawhi Leonard or Paul George are going to come out and drop 40+ points, ultimately leading their team to victory.
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Both the Clippers and Jazz were fantastic three-point shooting teams during the regular season, but in the playoffs, Los Angeles has struggled from deep, only shooting 35.4% from three-point range. Utah shot over 40% from deep as a team in their first-round series against the Grizzlies and shot fairly well in three meetings with the Clippers in the regular season, which is where they get their advantage in this series.
Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are great players, but the question that is still out there for the Clippers is: “who else will step up?” Sometimes Marcus Morris Sr. is that third guy for the Clippers and other times, it is Reggie Jackson. In Game 7 against the Mavericks, Terance Mann and Luke Kennard stepped up off-the-bench, combining for 24 crucial points.
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The inconsistent play from Los Angeles on the offensive-end of the court is a genuine concern of mine, which is why I truly believe the Jazz will take care of the Clippers fairly easily. With Donovan Mitchell playing the best basketball of his career right now, the Jazz having plenty of shooters and the fact that Los Angeles does not have anybody to guard Rudy Gobert, it is hard to imagine that the Clippers go to Utah and pull off multiple upsets.
However, something to monitor in this series is the health of Mike Conley. In Game 5 against the Memphis Grizzlies, Mike Conley suffered a mild hamstring strain and has been listed day-to-day by the Jazz. There is not much concern that Conley will miss any time, but this could be an injury that lingers and if it does get worse, then the Clippers could definitely use this injury to their advantage. Still though, it is hard to imagine the Clippers being able to beat the Jazz, especially since it took them 7 games to take care of the Mavericks who were basically getting all of their production from one guy in Luka Doncic.
Los Angeles really struggles against Utah in the regular season and in the playoffs, it is hard to imagine that they will be able to change their fortunes. The Jazz just look so locked-in and dominant right now, which is why they will be able to take care of the Clippers and move on to the Western Conference Finals for the first-time since 1998.
