Los Angeles Clippers: 3 Takeaways From Game 2

1: DeAndre Jordan Remembers That Rudy Gobert Is Injured

DeAndre Jordan should have feasted on the Utah Jazz in their first game. With Rudy Gobert in the locker room, the biggest obstacle (literally) to DJ’s success was removed.

While Derrick Favors is a solid rim protector in his own right, he simply does not have the same lateral quickness or intimidation factor as Gobert. In spite of that, DeAndre only managed 10 points on seven shots and was nowhere near as aggressive as he should have been.

Jordan surpassed that point total in the first quarter of this game. He finished the night with 15 rebounds and 18 points on 11 shots, including numerous thunderous dunks:

Favors might be good at protecting the rim when he is there. However, he does not have anywhere near the same lateral quickness and recovery speed on pick-and-roll defense that Gobert does. DeAndre exposed that all night long by cutting through wide-open lanes to the basket.

Jordan and the Clippers will both have to hope that Gobert is unable to return before the end of the series. However, Los Angeles still were not able to blow this game open after a 19-8 run to start the first quarter.

The pace slowed down to a crawl, especially whenever Chris Paul sat out — this game was played at a pace of 88.7 points per 100 possessions, which is somehow slower than Utah’s season mark of 91.6 that was by far the league low.

The Clippers still have room to improve even after this win as the series heads to Utah.

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If they can manage to build on their successes from this game and take Utah out of their comfort zone with a more aggressive offense, they should be able to take advantage of Gobert’s absence and advance to the second round.