Tyronn Lue’s disgust-filled stare down can’t revive Clippers in blowout loss to Jazz

There wasn’t a lot to say, so Tyronn Lue didn’t say something. One gesture was sufficient to precise his disgust.

The Clippers’ coach had known as a timeout with fewer than three minutes go to within the first half however he didn’t seize a whiteboard and draw up a play. Trailing by 26 to a Jazz workforce lacking injured starters Donovan Mitchell and Bojan Bogdanovic, extra drastic measures had been required. Lue merely seemed his starters within the eyes and waved them off the courtroom. When Reggie Jackson lingered close to the free-throw line to have a phrase with an official, Lue pursed his lips and waved for his beginning guard to go to the bench, too.

On got here Clippers reserves, and on went the Jazz’s rout, their lead rising to 37 at halftime. It was so one-sided, the dissection so scientific, that the primary half’s most suspenseful second concerned followers monitoring the place a miniature blimp flying across the enviornment’s higher deck would dump its giveaway prizes. When the Clippers returned from half, Lue saved three of his starters on the bench, turning to a lineup of basically anyone nonetheless wholesome or not within the G League, that includes the little-used Semi Ojeleye and Rodney Hood.

The 121-92 loss dropped the Clippers (36-37) beneath .500 for the primary time since Feb. 17.

Jared Butler scored a game-high 21 factors off the bench for Utah (44-26), and Jordan Clarkson added 20.

Robert Covington scored 18 factors to steer the Clippers.

With the Clippers all however a lock to complete eighth within the Western Convention and get two possibilities within the play-in event to advance to the postseason, the stakes of a mid-March blowout would seem comparatively, and maybe understandably, low. However think about the best way Lue used the final month of final season, sprucing their pick-and-rolls and not using a heart — time that reworked a set he had been “disenchanted” in to that time into one which paid postseason dividends.

Lue is attempting to make use of the final three weeks of this season as one other lab through which to strengthen totally different weaknesses, take a look at totally different concepts, relaxation up and put together for the postseason. However the second-half lineups of Ivica Zubac, Hood and Ojeleye wasn’t the sort of lineup experimentation anybody was anticipating. Nor did anybody anticipate relaxation to return within the type of a beating so out of hand so shortly that Reggie Jackson (seven factors), Marcus Morris (5 factors) and Nicolas Batum (two factors) performed 39 mixed minutes.

That prospect of progress, even with 9 video games remaining, is why not like Lue’s message to his starters, this loss couldn’t merely be waved away. Lue desires to see if his workforce can get higher at driving into the paint and enjoying with higher tempo of their half-court offense.

“We sort of do it in transition however once we get to half courtroom we sort of get gradual, get stagnant, so we’ve acquired to proceed to get to the second and third choice and never get gradual and never get stagnant and perceive what we’re attempting to do and what we’re on the lookout for,” he stated earlier than tipoff.

However the Clippers’ offense was so lifeless, their lack of ability to maintain Rudy Gobert and Utah off the offensive glass so evident, that the Clippers not often had alternatives so as to add polish. As an alternative, they had been pummeled, outrebounded 59-43. Gobert completed with 19 factors and 16 rebounds, 10 greater than Zubac had in every class.

The unhealthy omens first arrived throughout the first half, when Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Eric Paschall, usually fringe rotation gamers elevated by accidents all through Utah’s rotation, might hardly be stopped. They completed with 13 and 17 factors, respectively.

The Clippers opened the fourth quarter with a lazy inbounds move intercepted 90 ft from their very own basket that Jordan Clarkson was a fast three-pointer for a 40-point lead. Down the courtroom, Lue didn’t break his stone-faced expression, each arms crossed. Solely minutes later did Covington and Luke Kennard turn out to be the primary Clippers to succeed in double-digits scoring.