NBA Regular Season 2012-2013: Utah Jazz 96 at Los Angeles Clippers 107 -- Quick Recap

NBA Regular Season 2012-2013, Game 32:

Utah Jazz 96 at Los Angeles Clippers 107

#UTAatLAC Game Stream -- Clips Nation -- Jazz vs Clippers coverage

Last game of 2012! Finish strong!

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The Basics:

The Jazz playing without starting point guard Mo Williams and starting small forward Marvin Williams were within 5 points on the road in the fourth quarter with 3 minutes left in the game of the best team in the Western Conference, by record. We lost. And losing always hurts. And it's never a happy feeling. However, I'm not going to jump off a cliff. I guess part of the reason is because I did not watch this game, but kept track of it from listening to people tweet about it. Mistakes were made. Heck, Randy Foye aka The Savoir, had a good first quarter. But after that he went 1/5 shooting with 0 rebounds, 0 assists, 1 steal, and 4 fouls. (But hey, he's still a better option than Alec Burks who during that same stretch went 1/4 with 2 assists and 1 rebound . . . but that's a narrative or something . . . )

It was a close game, and we lost. And that sucks. But it's not the end of the world. It's just the end of the second month of the NBA season. We have 50 more games left, and in January and February the majority of them are at home. And we have long home stretches. Which means time for practice. And practice means getting better, and giving the front office time to evaluate our players more. And more time for our coaches to learn how to put more people in positions to succeed.

Our best players aren't always there. Our coaches aren't always there. Our bench isn't always there. Even our home fans aren't always there now. But times are tough NOW. They'll get better. I believe that.

The team we're going to be at this point in the season next year is going to be a way better team. But before that happens. the team we finish THIS season with is going to be playing a lot differently than the one that's had two hell months and finished one game below .500 with all the injuries and road trips we've been on.

In this game Paul Millsap was another no-show, Al Jefferson had a great game by the numbers (30 and 8, with 4 blocks and 2 assists), and the Clippers Caron Butler seemed to be a huge beneficiary of not having Marvin Williams around as Caron finished with 29 points. Not fun to lose any game. But not the end of the world either.

Just the end of 2012.

Good riddance.