{"id":19247,"date":"2025-10-23T09:11:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T09:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/19247\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T09:11:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T09:11:16","slug":"clippers-are-routed-by-jazz-in-a-disappointing-season-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/19247\/","title":{"rendered":"Clippers are routed by Jazz in a disappointing season opener"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>SALT LAKE CITY\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Walker Kessler had 22 points and nine rebounds, Lauri Markkanen scored 20 and the Utah Jazz beat the Clippers <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/game\/lac-vs-uta-0022500087\/box-score\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">129-108 on Wednesday<\/a> night in the season opener for both teams.<\/p>\n<p>Brice Sensabaugh added 20 points off the bench for Utah, which set a team record for points in a season opener.<\/p>\n<p>Kessler, the longest-tenured member of the Jazz, went 7 for 7 from the field. He blocked four shots and finished with four assists.<\/p>\n<p>The new-look Clippers appeared confused on the court at times in a disappointing debut for a team with lofty aspirations. Ivica Zubac led them with 19 points and seven rebounds. James Harden and Brook Lopez each scored 15. Kawhi Leonard had 10 points on 3-of-9 shooting.<\/p>\n<p>It was their most lopsided season-opening loss in 17 years.<\/p>\n<p>Utah made its first 19 shots in the paint, as crisp passing and precise ball movement led to layups and dunks.<\/p>\n<p>Widely expected to finish near the bottom of the NBA this season, the Jazz had 38 assists on 48 baskets and shot 55% from the field. Keyonte George led Utah with nine assists to go with his 16 points.<\/p>\n<p>Ace Bailey, the No. 5 pick in this year\u2019s draft, has been ill and was limited to 20 minutes for the Jazz. He scored two points.<\/p>\n<p>Bradley Beal also was on a minutes restriction in his Clippers debut and had five points.<\/p>\n<p>Taylor Hendricks, who sustained a gruesome broken leg in the third game last season, returned to the court and looked bouncy coming off the bench for Utah. He finished with 13 points and five rebounds.<\/p>\n<p>The Jazz led 78-47 at halftime after shooting 71.8% from the field. <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/sports\/clippers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Clippers<\/a> gave up 78 points in a half only once last season, while the Jazz hadn\u2019t scored that many in a first half since the 2023-24 season.<\/p>\n<p>Utah was 12 for 12 on two-point field goals and added four threes in the first quarter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SALT LAKE CITY\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Walker Kessler had 22 points and nine rebounds, Lauri Markkanen scored 20 and the Utah Jazz&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[6265,1732,15998,6665,3622,15996,6308,12853,48,52,51,47,50,49,1417,7556,5250,427,4591,15997,72],"class_list":["post-19247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-assist","tag-bench","tag-clipper","tag-clippers","tag-court","tag-disappointing-season-opener","tag-field","tag-jazz","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-point","tag-rebound","tag-shot","tag-team","tag-utah","tag-walker-kessler","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}