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Los Angeles • The Jazz were disappointed to lose the No. 4 seed and home-court advantage in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs on the final night of the 82-game NBA regular season.

They seized that edge in 48 minutes Saturday night.

The Jazz's 97-95 win over the Los Angeles Clippers, via Joe Johnson's floating shot at the buzzer in Game 1 at the Staples Center, altered the outlook of the series for both teams.

The Clippers' home-court advantage is gone, just like that. The teams finished in a tie for fourth place in the West at 51-31, but the Clippers' 3-1 edge in the head-to-head regular season series gave them the home-court advantage.

"We fought till the end of the year to get it," said coach Doc Rivers. "Now we've given it right back."

The Jazz took it from them, with Johnson scoring 21 points and the visitors shooting 48.1 percent from the field. "I just thought they scored easier than I would like," Rivers said.

That remained true until the end. The Jazz's winning play didn't go exactly as designed. Johnson was supposed to take the ball out of bounds after Chris Paul's tying shot. But the Jazz's Derrick Favors grabbed the ball and passed it to Johnson, who dribbled up and went one-on-one on the left side, knowing defenders are usually reluctant to leave their men in that situation.

"I just try to be patient, get to the sweet spot and try to make a play," Johnson said.

The Jazz held Clippers forward Blake Griffin to six points in the second half, after he scored 20 in the first half. Paul almost carried the Clippers into overtime by scoring 20 of his 25 points in the second half, but Johnson topped Paul's tying shot. The Clippers went 2 of 10 from 3-point range in the second half.

"I think our defense has to be better," Paul said. "And we've got to cut down on our turnovers [15]. I think that was something that was uncharacteristic of us. We had a lot of turnovers and they turned them into points."

kkragthorpe@sltrib.com

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