Jazz finish off long weekend in LA with win over Clippers

SALT LAKE CITY — Collin Sexton can finally breathe a sigh of relief. He made it.

Sunday's game in Los Angeles had special meaning for Sexton. It was the 11th game of the season — the same one that he tore his left meniscus during last season with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Last year, Sexton was helped off the court. On Sunday, he helped push the Jazz to another victory.

Sexton scored 9 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter to help Utah to a 110-102 win over the Clippers Sunday at Crypto.com Arena. The Jazz are now 8-3 on the season.

"I was thinking about this game all day today," he said immediately following the contest. "You can see how happy I am to be playing. I'm thankful to be back, thankful to be out here."

The Jazz were thankful he was, too. It was Sexton that sparked an 18-6 run to finish off the game with his relentless drives and cuts to the rim. He got to the free-throw line, made layup through contact, and even had the game-sealing dunk.

As Kelly Olynyk posted up with the ball, Sexton snuck inside to the paint; Olynyk turned and found Sexton, who quickly elevated for the dunk. It put the Jazz up by 6 points with 54 seconds remaining.

"A really important part of our offense is cutting, and Collin's recognizing the timing much better of when to cut in between the defenders, especially when they're rotating on the weak side," Jazz coach Will Hardy said. "I thought down the stretch he did a really good job and then he is so forceful, so athletic going towards the basket.

"He's able to gather himself very quickly — like he's able to go from catching the ball to up in the air at the rim really quickly, which helps him a ton."

He helped the Jazz on Sunday. Those 9 points he scored in the fourth quarter were the majority of the team's final 14 points, and it was somewhat of a surprise he was even in the game.

The Jazz were led in scoring on Sunday by Jordan Clarkson, who had 23 points and five assists, but with the Clippers reaching the bonus early in the fourth quarter, Hardy opted to go with the guard that could put more pressure on the rim. It turned out to be a stroke of genius.

What did Clarkson think of the move? Well, his two-fisted celebration of Sexton's late dunk showed enough.

But there was another part to Utah's strong finish that caught Hardy's eye even more: The Jazz allowed just 6 points in the final 5:35 of the game.

"Finding ways to win as a team is fun," Hardy said. "For it to be our defense down the stretch — they scored 17 in the fourth quarter, 6 points in the last five minutes. I thought our guys really stuck in there and just competed to the end."

And it all started with Lauri Markkanen.

The Finnish forward has been one of the biggest catalysts to Utah's strong start. Usually, it's because of his offense; on Sunday, he helped slow down Paul George enough for the Jazz to escape with a win.

George had 34 points on Sunday to lead the Kawhi Leonard-less Clippers, but only 3 of his points came in the fourth quarter. In fact, George was 0-for-5 from the field in the final 12 minutes, with all of his attempts coming from 3-point range. LA was 0-for-11 as a team from deep in the fourth quarter.

"I thought Lauri did a very good job of making Paul George work really hard — not just to get shots off but to get the ball," Hardy said. "Lauri did a great job chasing balls downs."

It was a job he got to handle late because energizer Jarred Vanderbilt missed the game with right adductor soreness.

"I was just trying to stay on his body and make life difficult," said Markkanen, who had 18 points and nine rebounds, of his defense on George. "Obviously, I'm a little taller than he is, so I can have a little bit of distance with him and still challenge the shot and try to make it difficult for him and make other guys beat us."

Turns out, those other guys couldn't.

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