LOS ANGELES, Dec 29 — Donovan Mitchell had 30 points, nine assists and seven rebounds, leading the Utah Jazz to a 120-107 victory over the host Los Angeles Clippers last night.
Jordan Clarkson scored 19 points, Bojan Bogdanovic added 17 and Joe Ingles chipped in 15 for the Jazz, who captured their seventh win in its last eight games.
Paul George had 20 points and 10 rebounds and Kawhi Leonard scored 19 points for the Clippers. Center Ivica Zubac finished with 15 points and 12 boards, nine of those on the offensive end. Lou Williams had 16 points.
Two free throws by Zubac cut the Jazz's lead to 109-107 with 3:35 left, but Utah scored the final 11 points to clinch the win.
Los Angeles lost for only the third time in 17 games at home.
A 3-pointer by Mitchell gave Utah an 87-77 advantage with 3:20 remaining in the third quarter.
However, the Clippers rallied with a 9-2 surge to pull within 89-86 after a dunk by George with two minutes left in the quarter. George's 3-pointer with six seconds remaining sliced Utah's edge to 93-92 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Clippers took a 54-43 lead after a bucket by Leonard with 5:09 remaining in the second quarter. But Clarkson helped spark a 9-0 Jazz run with a four-point play two minutes later to cut the gap to 54-52.
Los Angeles led 63-61 at the break. Leonard scored 14 points in the second quarter after failing to score in the first.
The Jazz were able to overcome double-digit leads in the first half by outshooting the Clippers 50 per cent to 42.6 per cent. They also converted 10 of 20 3-pointers (50 per cent) compared to 5 of 21 (23.8 per cent) for the Clippers in the first half.
Overall, Utah shot 52.3 per cent from the floor and made 17 of 35 3-pointers (48.6 per cent) to 36.8 per cent for Los Angeles and 12 of 40 (30 per cent) from behind the arc.
Clippers reserve forward Montrezl Harrell missed the game with an illness. — Reuters
