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Los Angeles • When his run with the Brooklyn Nets had come to end in late February of 2016, and Joe Johnson was bought out of his contract, freeing him to sign with any team he chose, there were no shortage of suitors for the seven-time All-Star.

The Los Angeles Clippers came calling.

The Utah Jazz did, too.

"We called at the waiver deadline last year," Jazz general manager Dennis Lindsey said recently. "He chose to go to Miami, but we were able to sow some seeds of, 'Hey, don't forget about us.'"

And there's no telling how different this first-round playoff series between the Jazz and Clippers might have looked if things had gone differently.

Heading into Tuesday's pivotal Game 5 showdown at Staples Center, the series is knotted at 2-2. If not for Johnson, the Jazz's season may very well have been over by now. It was Johnson's buzzer-beating heroics that gave Utah a win in Game 1, and it was Johnson again, bullying his way to the rim, hitting clutch shots or finding open teammates for dagger-3s, who rallied the Jazz to victory in Sunday night's Game 4 in Salt Lake City.

"We're lucky to have him," Jazz coach Quin Snyder said.

Johnson is averaging 19.3 points on 56 percent shooting in the series, and his effectiveness in the paint (where he has converted on 17 of his 23 attempts) is forcing the Clippers to rethink their game plan for defending him.

"The only one that probably expected this is Joe," Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. "And he's playing terrific."

Both the Jazz and the Clippers, however, had visions for how Johnson could have helped their teams.

Rivers tried to lure Johnson to Los Angeles after he left Brooklyn last season. Come July, Rivers again engaged in talks, though the Clippers' salary cap crunch left little hope of signing him in free agency.

"Hey, we're going to give you a hundred grand," Rivers jokingly pitched Monday when asked about their discussions last summer. "I'm a sweet talker, but I'm not that good."

The Jazz, meanwhile, were able to lure Johnson to Salt Lake City with a lucrative offer of $22 million over two years, and a team stocked with young talent looking for players to help them take the next step in their development.

"Joe has a great feel for a team and how the team fits together and what his role could be," Snyder said, reflecting on the team's discussions with Johnson last summer. "There's something to be said for someone who's as respected as he is in the league, and the kind of mind he has for the game, to identify this place as somewhere that he wants to be. I think that's a nice compliment to our players and our organization. And he certainly made a good decision."

Johnson has rewarded the Jazz's faith in him and validated his own decision to come to Utah.

"I've never questioned my decision," he said recently when asked about signing with the Jazz. "Maybe some people thought this was a little out of the norm, but I just looked at it like they had a lot of great young pieces and sprinkling in some few veteran talents could help these guys. Obviously it's paid off."

The Jazz envisioned Johnson as a veteran leader for their young core. At the team's practice facility on Monday, Snyder pointed to the basket where Johnson usually works on his game, and the crowd of players who have migrated toward him over the course of the season.

The Jazz also envisioned Johnson as a possible closer, a poised veteran who could take over in late-game situations.

"That's why we brought him here, why they brought him here," Jazz swingman Joe Ingles said Sunday. "He's such a calm, collected guy. He just plays the game. For us, we're trying to get him involved as much as we can, especially when he's going like he was for the last quarter or so. Just get out of the way."

That's what the Jazz did in Game 1, as Johnson beat the buzzer to stun the crowd in L.A. And what they did in late in Game 4, scoring 11 straight points for his team in the fourth quarter to beat the Clippers.

With the home crowd of 19,000-plus roaring together on Sunday night, Johnson and the Jazz couldn't hear each other call out plays on the court. Not that it mattered much for the soft spoken, seven-time All-Star.

"Have you ever heard him say anything?" Ingles joked. "He's a man of about three words a day."

With their series tied at 2-2 heading into Tuesday's pivotal Game 5 at Staples Center, the Jazz are just happy that one of the words Johnson said one day back in July was "Yes."