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The Los Angeles Clippers shook things up a little bit at their shootaround before Game 3. Usually, coach Doc Rivers likes to put Chris Paul and Blake Griffin together in the high pick-and-roll, but on Friday morning Rivers had his team work on the look with center DeAndre Jordan as the primary screener.

"I can't tell you why we did that," Rivers said later. "Sometime fate, you know … it's funny."

By the end of the night, Griffin would be out of the game, lost for the rest of the playoffs with a toe injury, and the Clippers would rely heavily on that new-look high pick-and-roll to rally for a win over the Utah Jazz.

The Jazz spent part of their Saturday practice going over film, addressing their shortcomings in defending the play.

"Obviously now with Blake (out), it's going to be a huge dose of that for the next few games," Jazz forward Joe Ingles said. "We obviously weren't super excited with how we played that last night. We need to clean it up and fix it up, and we'll be fine."

Rivers, meanwhile, will be looking for ways to shake up his offense without Griffin, knowing the Jazz will be making adjustments for Game 4.

"Last night was one of those survival games," Rivers said. "We basically ran a pick-and-roll for Chris every single play. You can't live that way throughout a series or throughout the rest of the year. We understand that. We have a lot of movement stuff that we can get into. But everyone's going to have to pitch in."

Lines of communication

Jordan found himself defending Utah's Gordon Hayward on the perimeter at one point in the second half Friday night. Jordan got into a defensive stance and then pointed at his head with both hands.

"It's for my teammates to communicate with me and see which side is loaded, which way they want me to send him, whichever side the help is," Jordan explained later. "He's such a great player, man. Nobody can guard him one-on-one. It's going to take all five of us, so I was just trying to communicate with everybody just to see where my help was at."

That communication didn't work so well on that particular play. Hayward drove past Jordan and finished with a two-handed dunk.

Injury report

Guard Austin Rivers is expected to miss Game 4 due to a hamstring injury. The Clippers are doubtful that Rivers could return for Game 5 on Tuesday in Los Angeles.

afalk@sltrib.com

Twitter: @aaronfalk