The Jazz dealt the Clippers another disappointing playoff elimination in Game 7

Many NBA analysts have wondered if the Los Angeles Clippers would opt to break up their core this offseason. If Sunday’s first-round Game 7 against the Utah Jazz marked this group’s final game together, then they will at least part ways in a fashion that convinces most observers that the experiment had run its course.

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The Jazz defeated the Clippers 104-91 on Sunday afternoon at Staples Center, ending a series that featured near-constant shifts in momentum and several key injuries. A matchup that began with an injury to Jazz star Rudy Gobert and hinged on the Clippers losing Blake Griffin to a season-ending toe injury ended with several familiar scenes on both sides — the Jazz controlling tempo and succeeding with scoring balance, and the Clippers struggling through many possessions and ultimately failing due to their own lack of secondary performances.

Despite understandable problems stemming from the loss of Griffin, this Game 7 loss stands as a real disappointment for the Clippers. Friday night’s Game 6 road win in Salt Lake City appeared to signal that the experience of Chris Paul, DeAndre Jordan, and several other longtime Clippers could prevail over a relatively inexperienced Jazz core. Instead, L.A. labored through the bulk of the game and failed to take advantage of the visitors’ foul trouble. Meanwhile, Utah won its third game of the series at Staples Center to negate the homecourt advantage they lost in the final week of the regular season and will move on to face the top-seeded Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Semifinals.

The Clippers can’t blame their Game 7 loss on a lack of luck. They appeared to get an advantage early when Gobert picked up two fouls in the first 3:05 of the game and spent the remainder of the first quarter on the bench. He returned for the beginning of the second period but was whistled for another foul after only two minutes and spent the rest of the first half on the bench. Gobert was a complete non-factor in this game — he fouled out in 13 minutes, took only one shot, and finished with one point and four rebounds.

DeAndre Jordan put up big numbers in his counterpart’s absence to finish with a team-high 24 points (9-of-12 FG, 6-of-15 FT) and 17 rebounds. However, the Clippers did not take advantage of Gobert’s foul trouble due in part to the performance of reserve big man Derrick Favors, who posted 17 points, 11 rebounds, and three assists in 30 minutes before fouling out. His performance exemplified what made the Jazz so formidable in this series — they adjusted to their bad breaks and had key players step up to fill in when others went down. Six others joined Favors in double figures in a sign of the team effort.

Meanwhile, the Clippers depended on four players — DeAndre Jordan, Austin Rivers, Jamal Crawford, and Chris Paul — for the vast majority of their offense. We’ve already covered Jordan, who did his part. Rivers and Crawford had hot and cold stretches, as they did all series, and only did as much as could have been expected of them given their typical roles. That leaves CP3, who had a rough 40 minutes given the stakes of Game 7. Paul finished with 13 points on 6-of-19 shooting (including 1-of-7 on threes) and nine assists and managed just two points in the second half. His struggles were those of the Clippers as a whole. Paul had trouble getting clean looks, often missed short when he did, and appeared to expend most of his energy on every single play only to have to summon up more for the next.

The Jazz deserve plenty of credit for disrupting the Clippers. Their wings’ length caused problems over the entire series, particularly in regards to J.J. Redick. The soon-to-be free agent took five shot attempts or fewer in three of seven games and was essentially rendered a non-factor by the defense of Joe Ingles and several others. Yet he was just one of the Clippers’ secondary players not to offer consistent contributions.

In the end, the Clippers lost this series because they never adjusted to the loss of Griffin. Lacking a bona fide All-Star capable of dominating a matchup is a very real reason to lose a series, so we don’t need to poke holes in that argument. But it’s also true that the Jazz sustained plenty of their own bad breaks — Gobert’s injury, Hayward’s food poisoning for Game 5, etc. — and managed to win three road games, including a Game 7 just two days after their own failure to close out the series in Game 6. At some point, an explanation of the Clippers’ elimination has to include the fact that they consistently encounter and fail to transcend adversity. Maybe this is just who they are.

Management’s response to that quandary will define a pivotal summer in which both Paul and Griffin can opt out to sign extremely lucrative max-level extensions. If they do, both would likely re-up for five years at untradeable rates. If this is who the Clippers are, then they better be ready to accept similar results for the foreseeable future. That’s not necessarily a bad thing — there are worse fates than finishing with a top-five seed, promoting a few stars, and continuing to be the best team in the league’s second-biggest media market. But it’s unlikely to result in a championship.

The Jazz do not have time to consider their future, because the present is already a handful. Their next round starts Tuesday in Oakland, where they’ll face the title favorite Warriors in a belated, unrelated rematch of the 2007 Western Conference Semifinals that ended the “We Believe” run. The series should test the Jazz in ways they did not experience in the first round. Golden State does not hand opponents opportunities to make up for several mistakes. One or two is usually enough to finish the job.

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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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