Monday night in Salt Lake City, the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Clippers dueled in a vital matchup in regards to determining home-court advantage in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs. After the Clippers jumped out to an early lead, and were still up by nine points mid-way through the third quarter, the Jazz battled back pick up an important victory, 114-108. Here a few key takeaways:. 

Playoff Race

While both teams look to be safely in the playoff picture, there is still plenty for each to play for down the stretch: namely, home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Heading into the game, the Jazz were sitting in fourth place, one game up on the Clippers. 

For Los Angeles, which had already won the first two games against Utah this season, a victory would have made it tied for fourth place and sealed the head-to-head tiebreaker against Utah. Instead, the Jazz got the win, moving them two full games ahead of the Clippers with 15 to play for each squad. And, with one more game on the schedule between these two, the Jazz could still take the tiebreaker. If they win on March 25, the head-to-head between Utah and LA would be 2-2. Then, because the Jazz are a division leader, they would take a tiebreaker from the Clippers.

Jazz-Clippers Beef?

The Clippers, of course, have been known to mix it up from time to time, especially in the playoffs. And judging by Monday night’s game, there could be some fireworks if these teams end up meeting in the playoffs. Things got physical a few times late in the fourth quarter, resulting in technical fouls. 

First, Rudy Gobert caught J.J. Redick with an inadvertent elbow that Redick took offense to, leading the Clippers guard to shove Gobert. Then, near the end of the game, Chris Paul went after Rudy Gobert, shoving the big man in the back during a rebound attempt, drawing a technical foul for himself.

CP3 wasn’t done, however, as he took a verbal shot at Gobert as well following the game.

Confidence Boost For Jazz

While Utah does have some veterans in Joe Johnson, George Hill, and Boris Diaw who have plenty of playoff experience, most of this bunch has rarely, if ever, seen the postseason. Tonight was an important test for them in a playoff-type atmosphere against a team that will likely be their first-round opponent. Being able to secure the victory, especially in the fashion that they did -- battling back from a nine-point deficit in the second half -- should give them confidence that they can compete in the postseason.

As Gordon Hayward noted after the game, “We needed this game. We got killed by them last time in our building, so we wanted to come out and play well.”

Gordon Hayward, Defensive Stopper

I don’t really have too much to say here, other than that is extremely impressive defense by Gordon Hayward. 

The Jazz were without Derrick Favors tonight, and needed people to step up down low, and Hayward did just that on this possession. For him to be able to stand his ground against Blake Griffin in the post shows just how much he has grown, both physically and as a player these past few years.