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Joe Ingles jabbed then pump faked while standing about 28 feet from the basket, but his defender didn't move.
"I thought, 'Screw it, I'm going to shoot it anyway.' Lucky it went in," Ingles would say later, laughing with a group of reporters, "otherwise I would have been sitting near you guys pretty quickly."
That's probably closer to what most people expected would happen to Ingles when he first arrived in Utah after being cut by the Los Angeles Clippers. But as Ingles returns to L.A. this weekend for perhaps the most important game of the Jazz's season, there's no question the Aussie forward has transformed himself into a critical member of Quin Snyder's squad.
"He's a very valuable player for these guys," Clippers coach Doc Rivers said recently. "When he's on the floor, you're never going to fall in love with Joe's numbers. He just does everything."
Rivers, by the way, is the guy who cut Ingles at the end of training camp three seasons ago, opting to keep a guard after Jordan Farmer went down with a back injury.
"We really liked him," Rivers said about Ingles. "It really came down to a contract issue with us. I didn't know how good he would be. But my thing with him was he had feel. He had great feel and hadn't even played in the NBA. You could tell he had played a lot of basketball."
Ingles, a free agent this summer who now stands to see a sizable raise, is averaging 6.9 points and shooting 43.7 percent from 3 for the Jazz. He'll be looking for a win Saturday that would put the Jazz. 2.5 games ahead of the Clippers for fourth place in the West.
"I'm happy for him," Rivers said.
Ingles is happy, too.
"It worked out in the end," he said, grinning. "I'm not complaining."
One on one
Gordon Hayward was one of the last players to speak with reporters after the Jazz's win over the Knicks on Wednesday. As it turns out, he had a decent excuse.
Hall of Fame point guard John Stockton wanted a minute of his time.
"That's my excuse for being late with you guys," Hayward said. "I'm sure everyone would take that opportunity, right? He just has a wealth of basketball knowledge. … I just try to soak everything up that he says and try to learn from it."
Injury report
Rodney Hood's minutes will be restricted Saturday as he continues to deal with the lingering effects of a knee injury.
"My knee has still been bothering me a little bit," the shooting guard said Friday. "Last game I went out there and gave it a shot. But it's getting better. It fluctuates from day to day, so I just have to stay on top of it."
Derrick Favors continues to be sidelined by a knee injury. The power forward has not played since early March. Backup point guard Shelvin Mack (ankle sprain) is questionable to play against the Clippers.
Twitter: @aaronfalk