Clippers still off in Utah

Beware the 18-0 run.

Or is it the one of the 17-0 variety?

In fact, both happened to bury the winless Clippers in less than a week, the latter in the season opener against the Lakers, the former in a second-half collapse against the Jazz on Saturday night at EnergySolutions Arena, a 101-79 Utah victory.

The Clippers have been starved for success in Salt Lake City, having not won here since Jan. 22, 2003, and their losing streak in Utah now stands at 11 straight. They are 1-33 against the Jazz in this arena.

“I don’t know if it was the back-to-back games or not, but it just seems like things don’t go our way when we come to Utah,” said Clippers guard Cuttino Mobley, who had 20 points.

Forward Carlos Boozer had his second double-double of the season, leading the Jazz with 25 points and 10 rebounds. Former Clippers point guard Brevin Knight played 22 minutes, scoring eight points and adding six assists.

In addition to Mobley, three other Clippers were in double figures: forward Tim Thomas (16 points), center Chris Kaman (11 points and 12 rebounds) and rookie guard Mike Taylor (13 points).

It was never going to be simple, not without the offense of point guard Baron Davis (sore left hip) and the defense of forward Marcus Camby (bruised right heel). Davis was hurt in the second quarter of an overtime loss against the Nuggets on Friday.

Still, major pieces were coming off the chessboard for the Jazz as well. Utah was without a key component in point guard Deron Williams (sprained left ankle).

Checkmate, for the Clippers, came in devastating fashion late in the third quarter. The Jazz, starting with 4:43 remaining, went on an 18-0 run and turned a 60-60 game into a 78-60 lead by early in the fourth quarter.

The Clippers shot 15% from the field (three for 20) in the third quarter and failed to score in the final 4:55, and didn’t do so until about 10 minutes left in the fourth.

“A tale of two halves,” Clippers Coach Mike Dunleavy said. “We played pretty well in the first half. We executed. We made shots. Shot a real high percentage. Then I don’t know if we lost our legs in the second half or what happened. We had a lot of good shots we missed that hurt us and we let them wear us down and we didn’t do a good job on boxing out.

” . . . After that, it just kind of blew up on us.”

“Blow up” might be too strong a description, but there were a couple of animated exchanges between Dunleavy and Kaman.

The first came after Kaman received a technical with 6:15 remaining in the first quarter, and he was promptly replaced by Brian Skinner.

But the technical wasn’t the reason Kaman sat for nearly the rest of the quarter.

“Forget the T, his man ran down the floor and gained an advantage in the open court,” Dunleavy said. “That just was a selfish play, for anybody. That’s not acceptable. That’s why I took him out of the game.

“You may be right. Maybe you got fouled. But talk to him [the referee] about it later. You put us at odds at the other end.”

Kaman, afterward, knew he had misstepped.

“I missed the play,” he said. “My guy ran down and got the layup and he was mad at me because I didn’t run back on defense. I probably shouldn’t have been yelling at the ref, probably should have kept playing, but I was frustrated. That’s part of being a human.

” . . . Coach has his decisions, and I trust he makes the right decisions, and he has ever since I’ve been here. Whatever he says, it’s like, ‘Shut up and listen.’ I understand that. He’s in charge.”

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lisa.dillman@latimes.com