Things I'll be watching for:
—Favors. Can he have a big game after expending so much energy in G1? If he gives us about 15 and 10 that's about where Rudy was during some of our wins while Favors was away. We're much better with both of them but we're still ok with Favs alone.
—Hayward. He's struggled against Luc but he also had a great game against the Clips this year. He put up 27 in a victory at home. Can he tap into that?
—Ingles. He put so much out there defensively in G1 that his offensive game struggled. Griffin didn't leave him on that final possession, but I might've considered it, given how he was shooting on the night. I expect Reddick will make some adjustments as well, and he'll probably put more points up than in game 1. How will Joe react? I'll be watching to see if he stays out of foul trouble. Johnson had 21 points in game 1, and it's possible we'll need Ingles to fill some of that in tonight.
—Hood shot a rough 2-7. I pick him as tonight's x-factor. Bring it tonight, Hood, we'll also need the offensive output from you if Johnson isn't up for 21 again.
—Hill. He was quietly efficient, putting up 16 on 7-13 fg, 1-2 from 3. Pretty dang good against a great defender in CP3. I still don't know where Hill's at compared to the beginning of the season when he excelled so much. He petered out a bit at the end of the season and also struggled with the blasted injuries. He's got to bring it tonight.
—Crawford. He'll be motivated to make up for that last defensive play, and to overcome his typical playoff struggles. He's shown the capability to bury Utah in the past. I hope he doesn't suddenly get locked in tonight. I see him or Reddick as LA's possible x-factor tonight. Despite his poor shooting (4 of 12), he was by far the best for LA in the +/- category at +12. Compare to CP3 at +1 and Paul Pierce's +2. Everyone else was zero or negative (Reddick -10!)
—Paul and Griffin. They combined for 51 points (25 and 26, respectively), which was more than half of the Clippers' total. That's a lot to carry versus Utah's slightly more spread out production. Paul averaged 18 ppg this season and over the last ten games of the season he averaged 20. He had a nice three game stretch over March 27 to April 1 scoring 27, 29, and 29, so he's capable of sustaining that output over several games. Griffin is averaging 23 over the last ten of the season, with a high of 36 and low of 15 (in a victory v. Utah on March 25).
—Battle of the boards. They had 40, we had 34. They had 2 more offensive boards than we did.
—Foul trouble. Overall we were only whistled for one more foul than the Clips. However, no Clipper had more than 3. Two Jazzmen had more than 3. And our fouls came early, leading to an early Withey appearance.
Let's go, Jazz.