The Jazz downed the Clippers 102-92 in the ES Arena, but not without taking some serious body shots.

Andrei Kirilenko suffered a mild concussion guarding Corey Maggette in the second quarter as Maggette caught him in the chin and forehead with his elbow. Kirilenko didn't return and will be re-evaluated today.

Shortly after that collision, Ronnie Brewer went down and banged his head, Clippers forward Aaron Williams landed on Mehmet Okur's back, and Paul Millsap took a knee to his groin by Maggette.

When Deron Williams went up for a dunk and landed hard on his back with the Jazz leading 70-59 in the third, the sellout crowd of 19,911 went silent, fearing another Jazz player down for the night.

It was a game to just get over with and move on to Thursday's showdown in San Antonio.

"When you play them, you know it's going to be a physical game," guard Derek Fisher said. "They've had some injuries, so they've struggled, but you know they're going to be physical."

Physical, and persistent. Tried as they might, the Jazz never could put the Clippers away and win in a comfortable fashion. As soon as Utah

solved one dilemma, another would arise. The Jazz shut Elton Brand down then Maggette got hot. Chris Kaman took over in the third and then Brand again started bulling his way through Utah's defense in the fourth.

Luckily for the Jazz, they had a typical outing from Carlos Boozer and Williams, as the former finished with 26 points and 10 rebounds and the latter had 21 points and seven assists. Both players average 22 points against the Clippers this year.

Okur added 24 points and 11 rebounds and his usual couple of big three-pointers late in the game.

Brand led the Clippers with 21 points and seven rebounds, and Maggette had 19 points.

"This was a big win for us because it sets the tone for the rest of the week," Boozer said. "They're a lot better team than their record shows, and they didn't run and hide after we got a big lead."

After trailing by 12, the Clippers got within a point of the Jazz with Maggette and Brand leading the way. The Clippers went on an 11-2 run in the fourth, pulling to within a point after Brand made a hook shot and Maggette scored inside, making it an 81-80 game with 5:23 left.

Rarely used Gordan Giricek, called into service with the absences of Kirilenko and Harpring, made a jumper after a timeout to keep the Jazz ahead. Williams followed with two baskets, and Giricek and Okur made back-to-back threes to give the Jazz a 93-84 lead.

"We could have easily kept floundering around and let this game get away," Fisher said. "Gordan came off and gave us some great play off the bench."

As physical as the game seemed, it wasn't physical enough from coach Jerry Sloan's standpoint, never mind he was left with a short bench. Pointing out that the Clippers outscored the Jazz 52-44 in the paint, he sounded willing to see his players give up a little more blood if it meant switching those numbers in favor of the Jazz.

"They set some good screens and it gave them some opportunities to come away with something," he said. "We have to learn to do a better job of that."

lwodraska@sltrib.com