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The list of reasons why the Jazz should have won Game 3 of their playoff series with the Los Angeles Clippers is long and lamentable, in the end.
Shouldn't this stuff have been enough to elevate the Jazz? Basically, everything anyone could have wished for actually happened, in the Jazz's effort to compensate for center Rudy Gobert's absence.
Gordon Hayward scored 40 points. Coach Quin Snyder produced some bold, clever strategy. No. 3 point guard Raul Neto scored five critical points. Clippers forward Blake Griffin missed the second half with a bruised big toe. And the Jazz led by eight points in the last eight minutes.
Sorry, all of that was insufficient.
Clippers guard Chris Paul scored 34 points and took over the fourth quarter of his team's 111-106 victory Friday night at Vivint Smart Home Arena, where the Jazz were seeking their first home playoff victory in seven years.
Hayward's inbounds pass went incomplete with 3.3 seconds left and the Jazz trailing by three and hoping for a miraculous, tying shot. After the buzzer, but before the referees could be escorted off the court, a fan threw a water bottle that barely missed one of them.
That's not the ending anyone was picturing around here.
So now, the Clippers hold a 2-1 edge, and what could the Jazz possibly do differently?
"I think we found a little something offensively," said Hayward, looking for encouraging signs after he and point guard George Hill combined for 66 points.
Even so, Paul overcame the Jazz's best efforts. "We tried a couple different things," Hill said. "I just think as a team we had too many breakdowns."
And once Paul and the Clippers started scoring in the fourth quarter, they were able to set their defense and stop the Jazz. After falling behind by eight points, the Clippers launched a 15-0 run as the Jazz went more than six minutes without scoring.
Everybody had asked for adjustments after a Game 2 defeat in Los Angeles, and Snyder made them Friday. He assigned Joe Ingles to help defend Paul, and he schemed to free Hayward offensively.
The strategy worked wonderfully in the first quarter, mainly because Snyder followed through with unconventional strategy. Most coaches at every level of basketball automatically substitute at fouling checkpoints, such as two fouls in the first period of an NBA game.
Not Snyder, in this case, and his risky move was richly rewarded. Hayward picked up his second foul with 6:22 left in the quarter and the Jazz leading 12-11. He was allowed to stay on the court. "I was not surprised; just had to play a little bit smarter." Hayward said.
He proceeded to score 14 more points, finishing the period with 21 - a franchise record for any quarter of a playoff game, as the Jazz took a 34-21 lead.
There would be many more twists and turns, though. The Clippers kept Hayward from becoming the story of Game 3. "I believe in Gordon," Snyder said before the game. "If he keeps playing, keeps attacking, he'll have success at some point."
Hayward hit a jump shot on the opening possession and just kept coming, on a night that became unforgettable — but not all for the right reasons.
T-shirts, towels and a banner that stretched across three sections of the lower bowl displayed the the Jazz's theme of the season: "Take Note."
The fans were equally angry about the officiating and supportive of the Jazz. As Hayward stood at the free-throw line, they chanted, "MVP!" At various times, in flashbacks to playoff series with the Lakers, they yelled, "Beat L.A.!"
The Jazz responded to the atmosphere by staging another inspired effort without Gobert, who missed another game with a knee injury. The 7-foot-1 center will tower over the story of this series, regardless of how it ends.
"The bottom line is nobody will remember who's playing or not playing," Snyder said. "They'll remember which team was able to win."
That may or may not be true. In any case, the teams will reconvene Sunday night, in another charged environment.
Wow. You had to be here. That's what a lot of Jazz fans recognized, having waited five years for a home playoff game. Patrick Hunt of Kaysville had not attended a Jazz playoff game in 20 years, during the team's run to the 1997 NBA Finals. "There was just something about this year that made me do whatever I could, just to return to that atmosphere," he said. "I knew the place was going to be crazy."
That's a good description of Game 3, from start to finish.
Clippers coach Doc Rivers had praised the Vivint environment, while saying, "You've just got to keep your composure and your trust."
Sure enough, the Clippers were unfazed Friday. Even after Ingles' 3-pointer gave the Jazz a 96-88 lead, the visitors rallied under tough circumstances. Game 1 hero Joe Johnson missed some key shots, and he was not the only struggling Jazzman in the fourth quarter.
Snyder had done everything he could, but he couldn't alter an outcome that will be difficult to dismiss between now and Sunday night — or any time this summer, probably.
Twitter: @tribkurt