Utah Jazz vs. LA Clippers, Jazz lose 112-96: Jazz can't overcome early deficit. Again.

It was an interesting game, to me.

The first quarter bored me out of my mind. But from that point on, I was really engaged ... and the Jazz were too. It was too little and too late (not exactly helped by all those missed FT's ... seriously). But there were strong moments from a lot of our guys.

The Jazz went on a 17-2 run to cut that first quarter 20-point deficit to only 5. The run was done primarily by an Exum-Burks-Hayward-Booker-Gobert lineup.

Later in the game, a lineup of Burke-Burks-Hayward-Favors-Gobert looked pretty decent.

But it wasn't enough. Blake Griffin ate Enes Kanter's spleen and excreted out a diamond in the shape of 28 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists (13-18 shooting). Jamal Crawford used his secret voodoo dolls on both the ball and the refs' whistles to end up with a ridiculous 22 points. Chris Paul, J.J. Redick, and Jordan Farmar all scored in double figures as well.

On the Jazz side, several guys had strong contributions:

• Gordon Hayward led with 30 points (11-18 shooting), 5 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal.
• Derrick Favors had 19 points (8-11 shooting), 7 rebounds, and an assist.
• Trevor Booker screamed and jowled his way to 15 points (4-7 shooting), 9 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 assists
• Alec Burks chipped in 12 points (4-6 shooting), 2 rebounds, 4 assists, and a steal.
• Rudy Gobert was normal Rudy: 4 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, and 2 blocks in 20 minutes.

Sadly, not everybody contributed so soundly. Rodney Hood, Trey Burke, Dante Exum, and Enes Kanter combined to shoot 5-28. That's 18%. Teams generally lose when they shoot that poorly.

The team actually played some pretty decent defense in the final three quarters, I thought. But that's not good enough when you're down by 20 in the first, nor when you miss 12 FT's.

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The Jazz next play the Nuggets in SLC on Monday. Let's hope we get a better performance.