Jazz Wins by Catching Clippers on the Rebounds : Pro basketball: Utah defeats L.A., 101-84, the night after being embarrassed in its home opener in a new arena.

It shouldn’t have taken long for the Clippers to realize this wasn’t going to be their night. The clue came before anyone had touched the ball, before a second had ticked from the Delta Center clock. Olden Polynice, jumping for the opening tip, was called for a loose ball foul.

“It was a basic indication of how (stuff) was going to be tonight,” Polynice said.

Some two hours later, all doubt was removed, the Clippers having been swarmed under by the big bodies--and one little one--of the Utah Jazz, 101-84, Saturday night, ending a four-game winning streak.

The Jazz won by out-rebounding the Clippers, 57-34, including 15-9 on the offensive end. Karl Malone had 14 rebounds to go with his game-high 31 points, and Mark Eaton had 11 rebounds. But no Clipper had more than Loy Vaught’s eight. Even Utah’s top two front-court reserves, Mike Brown and Thurl Bailey, added seven each.

The little contribution? Guard John Stockton, on what could be described as a bad night because of five-of-13 shooting, had 14 assists and 12 points.

“They killed us on the boards,” said James Edwards, who had six rebounds, second most among the Clippers. “When they got the offensive rebounds, we couldn’t get our fast break going. And our half-court offense tonight had too much standing around.”

Utah planned it that way.

“The offensive rebounds were definitely the key,” Brown said. “We were showing we were pretty alive down there by getting the second- and third-chance baskets.”

Polynice, it turned out, wasn’t the only Clipper with a premonition that bad news was coming. Coach Mike Schuler needed only to pick up the newspaper Friday and see that Utah was out-rebounded and played poor defense in losing to the Seattle SuperSonics the night before.

That it came in the first regular-season game in the Delta Center meant the Jazz had been upstaged in their own big event.

That it came from a team coached by Jerry Sloan, who as a player was the epitome of hard-nose defense, meant it wouldn’t happen again. Or else.

“They (the Jazz) were pretty much the aggressors all night,” Schuler said after the Clippers dropped to 4-2.

“Seattle didn’t do us any favors by coming in and ruining their home opener. I read the complaints about the defense. I normally know what that means for a Jerry Sloan team.”

Sloan, the coach, doesn’t come close to matching the reputation of the player, but the emphasis on defense and rebounding did come up during preparation for the Clippers. Jazz players merely rammed the point home.

“We knew,” Brown said after Utah ended a rare three-game losing streak to improve to 2-3. “We know that defense is one of our fortes, and that it’s one of the things that make the Jazz so good.”

The Clippers, losers of five in a row here, scored only 40 points in the second half. Their best opportunity to make a move and cut into a deficit that reached 81-60 came early in the fourth quarter, when Utah managed one basket in a 4:58 stretch. But the Clippers didn’t take advantage.

Clipper Notes

Bolstered by a franchise-record nine steals Wednesday against Phoenix and seven more Friday against Denver, Doc Rivers has put distance between himself and the rest of the league in that department, having taken a 6.67 average into Saturday’s game. “I go for steals,” Rivers said. “I reach a lot. But really, I’m just trying to disrupt the offense, force somebody to make an extra pass or have to move a few steps to get a pass. If I don’t get a steal, in all likelihood, I’m still making it a little tougher for them to score.” Rivers, who had 20 steals in his first three games and added one more against the Jazz, has led the way in the Clippers’ totaling a franchise-record 22, and then 21, against the Suns and Nuggets, respectively.

Official word is expected that the Jazz will play host to the 1993 All-Star game at the Delta Center. Commissioner David Stern was on his way to Salt Lake City Thursday to make the announcement at a news conference planned to coincide with the first regular-season game in the new building, but he changed plans at the last minute to attend the Magic Johnson news conference at the Forum.