This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Los Angeles • You can barely begin to ask Randy Foye about his two chances to beat his former team without being corrected.
"Three," the first-year Jazz guard.
Oh yes, the preseason. Those games don't count, but Foye still listed it as he went through the opportunities during the Jazz's shootaround at Staples Center Sunday morning.
The Jazz (15-16) play the Clippers (24-8) for the second time in three nights Sunday at 7:30 p.m. MT. They have lost three games one in the exhibition season to the Clippers by a combined five points, and each of those three games it has fallen to Foye to be the Jazz's hero.
"It stings me," Foye said. "Because I know we were in position."
On Oct. 17, his 20-footer at the buzzer missed. On Dec. 3, his final-second steal-and-heave was well off and didn't beat the buzzer anyway. The worst? Try Friday when Foye stepped into Matt Barnes to draw contact on a 3-point attempt and wound up missing a 3-pointer that would have brought an end to the Clippers 15-game winning streak.
"Yeah," Foye said, "it's tough but I'm looking at it as another chance to do it tonight."
Foye said former coaches and teammates exchange text messages with him before games against the Clippers, general taunts and teases.
"They know I can play," Foye said. "They know what I did in practice and they know what I did last year to help the team."
He spent two seasons with the Clippers, starting 48 games last season and helping the Clippers to the second round of the Western Conference playoffs. Through 31 games with the Jazz, Foye is enjoying the second-best 3-point shooting season of his career, at 40.5 percent. He scored a season-high 28 points against the Clippers on Friday and was 5-of-9 on 3-pointers. However, he missed his final three attempts.
— Bill Oram