SALT LAKE CITY - The LA Clippers find themselves trailing 2-0 for a second straight series, but Kawhi Leonard says her team has "a lot of fighting" left.
The Clippers, however, went deeper than any other team in NBA history to pull out of this hole against the Utah Jazz after falling 117-111 in Game 2 before a sellout crowd of 18,007 at Vivint Arena. Huh.
While the Clippers returned to defeat the Dallas Mavericks in seven games after dropping the first two at home in the first round, neither team ever pulled off multiple 2–0 deficits in a single post season.
"We all have to put our will on the floor," Leonard said of what it would take for the Clippers to mimic their first-round comeback. "You know, look at what we did in the first two games and try to limit our mistakes and just keep going from there.
"We'll see [on Friday] what we have to do, and we have a lot of fighting left. So you know, we're up to the challenge."
The Clippers showed a lot of fighting in Game 2 on Thursday night. They were 9 minutes, 27 seconds behind 76-55 as the pro-Jazz crowd celebrated a 24-5 run that stretched from the end of the second quarter to the start of the third.
But Reggie Jackson drilled six of seven shots and scored 16 of his 29 points in the third quarter to lead the Clippers' comeback.
Jackson buried back-to-back 3-pointers, and the Clippers led 101-99 with 6:37 remaining in the game. But like they have been for most of this season, the Clippers were on streak, and suddenly their shot left them.
The Clippers lost nine straight shots, including six shots from the back of the arc, and Utah capitalized to go for a game-cleaning 14-2.
Despite the results, coach Ty Lew said he was "very pleased" with the shots the Clippers got during that game-deciding drought.
"I mean, what else can you get?" Liu said. "Four or five wide-open 3s, we just didn't make it. So we knew Rudy [Gobert] was going to help. We knew our shooters were going to be open, and we just had to step up and make the shot , and we don't. We just got good shots and we didn't make them. Hopefully they go down in the next game."
Unlike the previous series, in which the Clippers dropped the first two at home and then went on to win Games 3 and 4 in Dallas to even the series, Lew's team was looking forward to a return to the Staples Center. If the Clippers do not, they may return to Utah facing elimination or potentially not making it back.
The Clippers know that top seed Utah is a better opponent than Dallas. But they are still confident knowing that they have recovered from the 0-2 loss in the previous series.
"We have to give them credit," said Paul George, who had 27 points, 10 rebounds and six assists. "It's a tough opponent. They weren't No. 1 in the West for no reason. ... But, you know, we're approaching the same way Dallas was - we still think we have a lot There is property we can clean up, a lot of the property that is hurting us is our fault."
The Clippers will also have to find a way to slow down Donovan Mitchell and the Utah shooters. Mitchell has scored 45 points and 37 points in the first two matches. And Utah buried 20 3-pointers in Game 2.
"As good as they're playing, as tough as this matchup, we still feel like there are moments throughout this game, this series, that, you know, we're making plays that are self-inflicted, " said George.
"It's very tough. But we're optimistic that we can get it under control and go back home, one game at a time, and try to tie this series."