Conley’s 18-Point 3rd Quarter Pushes Jazz Past Clippers

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – After an uninspiring first half, the Utah Jazz blew past the Los Angeles Clippers with a third quarter run sparked by Mike Conley’s brilliant play at point guard. Conley scored 18 points in a 32-12 run over the first 7:30 of the quarter and the Jazz ran away with a 110 to 96 victory. 

The struggles of Conley through the first five games of the season had been well documented. The 13 year veteran was off the worst start of his NBA career, averaging under eight points, and connecting on just 20 percent of his field goal attempts before breaking out in the third quarter. 

“It’s good to see him pay well. Some of it was just him getting comfortable and relaxing,” coach Quin Snyder said, “Thats who he is.”

That's the Mike Conley that @utahjazz fans were waiting for! #TakeNote https://t.co/pACAnjCy2D

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) October 31, 2019

Conley was aided in the run by Bojan Bogdanovic who added five points, Donovan Mitchell who added four points, and Gobert who added an alley-oop dunk. Joe Ingles wasted no time getting involved in the action, knock down a three-pointer 35 seconds after replacing Donovan Mitchell into the lineup. Ingles finished the run with five pointes of his own. 

The Jazz led the Clippers at the half 52-51, but the starting line-up had been badly out-dueled through two quarters. Lou Williams, who was moved into the starting lineup to replace a resting Kawhi Leonard had 16 first half points for the visitors. 

While the Jazz starters struggled with the pick and roll of Williams and Ivica Zubac, the Jazz bench took advantage of a depleted Clippers second unit in the first half. 

At the end of the first quarter, the Jazz were 10 points better than the Clippers with Ed Davis on the floor, 12 points better with Emmanuel Mudiay and Jeff Green on the floor, and 15 points better with Ingles in the lineup. 

“I thought that group really came in and played defense,” Snyder said, “When you get kind of effort defensively it turns into good things offensively.”

ball on the 𝓜𝓞𝓥𝓔 pic.twitter.com/NPDXY2JsjM

— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) October 31, 2019

At the half, no Jazz starter had a positive plus-minus.

It looked like more of the same from the Jazz starting five coming out of the half, when the Clippers backcourt scored on consecutive possessions to take a 55-52 lead 1:12 into the third quarter. 

A Mitchell 13-foot jump shot stemmed the quick run, and gave way to the Conley outburst. 

The Jazz won the quarter 38-20. The offensive explosion is the best quarter of the Jazz season so far. 

“I knew it was going to come,” Conley said, “I hate that it had to start that way, but hopefully this is the start of positive Mike.”

Conley’s run started with a 25-foot three pointer, he then saw one of his patented floaters fall, and from there the dam had burst. Conley connected on 6-8 shots in the quarter, including all four of his three point attempts. The guard added two free-throws in the quarter.

“Mike was great tonight, it was great to see him back in rare form,” Jeff Green said, ” he took was the defense gave him.”

In addition to the scoring, Conley assisted on a three point basket from Bogdanovic and an alley-oop to Gobert.

4-1 is the best start to a season by the Utah Jazz since they started the 2008-09 season 5-0 #TakeNote #UtahJazz

— Jeremiah Jensen (@JJSportsBeat) October 31, 2019

The Jazz held their fifth straight opponent under 100 points to start the season. The Clippers turned the ball over 20 times, which led to 27 points for the Jazz.

Conley and the Jazz travel to Sacramento to take on the Kings Friday night.