JAKARTA - Kenneth Lofton Jr. performed brilliantly by setting a record this season. He packed 27 points, nine rebounds, and eight assists from the bench to lead the Utah Jazz to a narrow away win 110-109 over the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday night or Saturday morning 14 April WIB.
Another player who contributed was Keyonte George with 14 points, helping Jazz (31-50) win their second straight win in two nights after ending a streak of 13 consecutive defeats.
Bones Hyland scored 20 points, being the top scorer for the Clippers (51-30), despite failing to score a decisive 3-point shot in stoppage time.
This result has no impact on the CLippers' position in the standings. They managed to secure fourth place in the Western Region playoffs thanks to the loss of Dallas Mavericks 107-89 to Detroit Pistons earlier that night.
Los Angeles will benefit from playing at home against Dallas in the first round of the playoffs.
Both teams rely a lot on substitutes. Most of the Clippers' core players only played a limited few minutes in the first quarter, while the majority of the Jazz core was absent again.
The match was exciting where both teams managed to rise from a double-digit deficit and ended dramatically.
Bones managed to get the Clippers one point ahead with a layoff of 3:11 minutes before time runs out.
Jazz then reclaimed the lead with a 6-0 streak, including 3 points from George followed by a powerful shot from Lofton.
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Daniel Theis and Brandon Boston Jr. helped Clippers reduce the gap to one point with two shots in a row at the last minute. However, the Clippers failed to score points in the last seconds to turn ahead.
Apart from Lofton Jr., Amir Coffey scored 16 points for the Clippers, while Theis finished with 14 points and seven rebounds. Paul George and Ivica Zubac each scored 10 points in their first quarter, while Boston also packed 10 points.
On the Jazz side, Johnny Juzang, Darius Bazley, and Talentang-Tucker each scored 12 points, while Luka Samanic contributed 11 points.
Jazz will finish their regular season against the Golden State Warriors on Sunday, while the Clippers will end with a home game against Houston.
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