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News broke a little less than an hour before tipoff that Rudy Gobert was going to play in Game 4 on Sunday night. And Vivint Smart Home Arena was a happy place. A bit scared, a bit apprehensive about the big man's condition, but happy.

In a playoff series that's become a spinning door among star players, with one minute them coming, the next them going, Gobert was back and Blake Griffin was sitting, nursing an injury away.

It was almost alarming to think … who's next? Is this NBA basketball or an episode of M.A.S.H. or General Hospital? And then, word came that Gordon Hayward suffered from food poisoning over the past 24 hours. What could be around the corner … palsy and leprosy, locusts and frogs and seven years of famine?

Turned out Hayward played just nine minutes: "He was on his back until game time," Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. "He wanted to play."

Come what may then, Gobert had to show in this game. The prospects of him not playing and the Jazz falling behind 3-1 heading back to L.A. brought a logical notion that if Rudy didn't go Sunday night, he might as well have packed up and headed for the offseason. With that kind of deficit, a Gobert comeback postponed until Game 5 wouldn't have made much sense or done much good. It was now or never, the whole lot of them — stars, rotationals, scrubs — soon floating on a raft in the Caribbean.

His presence made a lot of sense. And a big difference.

It buoyed the rest of the crew, including Joe Johnson, who carried the offensive load for the Jazz down the stretch, hitting shot after shot. Amazing … the old man and the see-it-to-believe-it. He scored 28 points, including 11 straight in the fourth quarter — with a few sweet buckets from Joe Ingles and Rodney Hood mixed in.

"Joe Johnson and Joe Ingles were phenomenal," Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. "… Favors had a big game."

Added Snyder: "Can't say enough about Derrick Favors, and Rodney picked up his level. Joe Johnson … we're lucky to have him."

And so business got done to the tune of the game's final count: 105-98 Jazz.

Game 4 reminded everyone of two rather obvious things:

1) The aforementioned, Gobert lifts his teammates.

2) The postseason grind is exactly that — a fight to endure.

That second reality certainly is being brought to the front of the Jazz's consciousness, absorbing the competitively brutal intensity and unforgiving nature of the entire exercise. Facing off in such an environment, even on their home floor, in a best-of-7 series is not unlike battering their heads against the same heavy door over and over, hoping somehow that last hit will knock in the darn thing.

It sure helps when your best player is doing some of the battering.

Especially when your second-best is puking his guts out.

Gobert cleaned the boards and dunked the ball, scoring 15 points, making the Jazz look more like themselves again. Favors came out of a cold fog to do his thing, scoring 17 points on 7 for 10 shooting.

Yes, there were periods of abject sloppiness, inaccuracy and inefficiency on the parts of both teams throughout the game, draped as it was in playoff intensity, but the numbers on the board stayed tight — within a clenched fist of points — from start to finish.

Snyder continued his bursts of creativity in this series by doing something he hadn't done before Sunday night — he spun his point guards in and out of the game, playing all four of them, even Dante Exum, albeit at shooting guard. It was Exum's first playoff action.

Back and forth the battle went, the entire building seeming to breathe in and breathe out with every possession, particularly in that fourth quarter. Each team had made plans of attack and alternate plans, moves and counter moves, as situations and situational basketball called for them game by game. When Gobert was out, the Jazz rallied. With Gobert out, the Clippers attacked the Jazz in the paint. With Griffin out, the Clippers rallied. The total point margin between these teams was 11 before Sunday night's game. Make it 18 now.

The conclusion to draw at game's end?

Rivers said it right: "It's a series now. It's 2-2."

The battering has just begun.

GORDON MONSON hosts "The Big Show" with Spence Checkouts weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM. Twitter: @GordonMonson.