Once Jazz Gets the Upper Hand, Clippers Don’t Rebound

Guard Reggie Williams had his right eye scratched and missed the last 2 1/2 quarters of the game. The Clippers, meanwhile, had a giant black eye developing all night.

They had their lights turned out by the Utah Jazz, who jumped to a 19-point lead in the first half and used a strong run at the start of the third quarter as the knockout blow to beat the Clippers, 117-98, Monday night before a crowd of 12,444 at the Salt Palace.

“They just beat the hell out of us, quite frankly,” Clipper Coach Gene Shue said.

The rebounding statistics backed him up. The Jazz, who won their fifth straight to improve to 6-2, outrebounded the Clippers, 31-13, in the first half alone. By then, Utah had a commanding 59-46 lead.

The Jazz landed the same 1-2 combination in the second half--rebound followed by a basket--and built a 30-point cushion several times. They finished with a 64-45 advantage on the boards, including team rebounds.

“It was unbelievable,” Utah Coach Frank Layden said. “I’ve never seen us rebound like that. I was particularly happy with the offensive boards (15, contrasted with the Clippers’ 6) because that led to a lot of points.”

The Jazz fell short of the team record of 73 rebounds, set against Milwaukee during the 1976-77 season, but that was little consolation to the Clippers, whose 19-point loss came on the heels of a 24-point defeat Saturday at Denver.

“They just outworked us, that’s all,” said Clipper center Benoit Benjamin, who finished with 3 rebounds, 3 points on 1-of-10 shooting from the field in 31 minutes.

The Clippers (4-6) were out of it after the first quarter, when the Jazz worked a 26-21 lead to the comfortable halftime edge.

Utah, which had 25 points from Darrell Griffith, 24 from Thurl Bailey, 23 from Karl Malone and 22 (and 15 assists) from John Stockton, then opened the third quarter by hitting 7 of their first 10 shots.

The Clippers outscored the Jazz, 32-23, in the fourth quarter, but after getting beat, 35-20, in the previous 12 minutes, the ending was merely window-dressing. There were no other attractions in the display besides Utah.

“They set the tone in a number of ways,” Shue said of the Jazz. “Physically, they’re very aggressive, and they are well-coached. They’ve also been together a few years, and that had something to do with it.

“We’re struggling along, but this isn’t anything I didn’t expect. . . . I think people expect us to go out and beat these teams, and that’s just not going to happen.

“At home, we did some good things. We ran the ball and showed some explosiveness. But we’re not doing any of that on the road.”

Danny Manning led the Clippers with 21 points off the bench, his second straight time over the 20-point barrier and third time in 6 games as a pro. Charles Smith added 19, Tom Garrick had 14 in a reserve role and Ken Norman 12.

“We didn’t come out and play the way we wanted to play,” Manning said. “But you have to give them credit. They took us out of everything we wanted to do offensively.”

The Clippers, who had no one reach double figures in rebounding, shot 41.1% from the field, their lowest mark of the season. But Utah’s tough defense had something to do with that. The Jazz have been limiting teams to 43.6% shooting.

Williams made 4 of 7 shots from the floor before he went out with 6:45 to play in the first half, after Malone scratched his right eye while swiping for the ball. Williams left the bench for the locker room moments after the incident and did not return. Afterward, a gauze bandage covered the eye.

“I haven’t opened it,” said Williams, who suffered a similar injury last season against Houston. “It hurts now and it would hurt even more if I opened it. But he (Jazz team physician Dr. Lyle Mason) said it should be better tomorrow.”

The Clippers, limping home after a tough 2-game trip, hope for the same prognosis.

Clipper Notes

With the resignation of Jack Ramsay at Indiana, Clipper Coach Gene Shue has become the winningest active coach in the league. Shue is 778-839, which also makes him the losingest coach, active or otherwise. . . . Clipper center Benoit Benjamin turns 24 today. Benjamin had 5 blocked shots against the Jazz, giving him 20 in the last 6 games after a slow start. . . . The Clippers next play Wednesday, against Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls at the Sports Arena. About 1,000 tickets remain.