Clippers fail to come back from early deficit in loss to Jazz

For so much of Saturday night’s game, the Clippers were a listless and defensively challenged group.

It wasn’t until the Clippers dropped into a 25-point hole in the third quarter that they seemed to summon the energy to compete with the Utah Jazz.

But like it often happens when teams attempt to come back, the Clippers’ rally eventually stalled and they wound up dropping a 125-113 game to the Jazz at Vivint Smart Home Arena.

“Honestly, we just didn’t have it,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. “I thought they played a lot harder than us, which I rarely say.

“I thought they played desperate. They lost a game at home last night and they didn’t want to lose two in a row.”

Lou Williams had it again, and he had it in so many ways for the Clippers.

Williams had 31 points, a career-high 10 steals and seven assists.

But that wasn’t enough to stop the Clippers from having their six-game winning streak snapped.

“I think they played harder than us tonight,” said Williams, who was nine of 21 from the field. “We started slow. They got off to a good start and we were playing uphill from there.

“I think we didn’t find our juice until about halfway through the third. It was already too late.”

Besides breaking the Clippers franchise record for steals that had been held by Rivers (nine), Williams became the only player since steals were first recorded during the 1973-74 season to have 30-plus points, 10-plus steals and seven-plus assists in a regular-season game.

Also, Williams’ steals were the most in a single game this season in the NBA.

“That’s pretty cool,” Williams said. “I’m sure they’ll create some more stats for people to break. That’s pretty cool.”

The Clippers gave up 39 points in the first quarter and 76 points by halftime, trailing by 17 points at the juncture.

They gave up 104 points by the end of three quarters, falling into a 94-69 deficit in the third quarter.

But with Blake Griffin (25 points, eight rebounds) and Wesley Johnson (17 points, eight rebounds) coming alive along with Williams and the Clippers picking up their defense, they pulled to within 119-113 on a three-pointer by Milos Teodosic with 1 minute 18 seconds left.

But the Clippers never scored again.

The Jazz kept the Clippers at bay by having seven players score in double figures.

Rookie Donovan Mitchell had 23 points and seven assists.

Joe Ingles had a career-high 21 points.

The Jazz shot 54.9% from the field for the game, easily having their way with the Clippers defense for too much of the game.

“They played harder. They played more aggressive than us in the first half,” Griffin said. “They did kind of what they wanted to do. We didn’t do a good enough job of putting up a good-enough fight. I thought in the second half we completely changed that. But putting yourself in that big of a hole is tough.”

broderick.turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @BA_Turner