An upset defeat! Paul struggled in his debut, Harden scored 15+11, Leonard was lost, and the Clippers lost by up to 37 points

Editor|Old Kankanqiu

On October 23, the NBA 2025-26 season ushered in the focus of the Western Conference. The Los Angeles Clippers traveled to Salt Lake City to challenge the Utah Jazz away from home. What fans are looking forward to is that this offseason, the Clippers management once again showed magical operations. They successively introduced top reinforcement players such as Bradley Beal, Chris Paul, Lopez, John Collins, etc., and solved the shortcomings of last season in a very targeted manner. The US media rated the management's operations as S-level. What's more interesting is that after the reinforcements are completed, the average age of the Clippers is as high as 33.2 years old, setting a new NBA historical record and becoming the oldest team in the history of the league.

Despite this, this new Clippers lineup is indeed too reasonable. The arrival of Collins has completely made up for the Clippers' lack of space at the fourth position. Lopez has filled the substitute vacancy at center. Paul's return has given the Clippers a "dual point guard engine". The addition of Bill has improved the team's outside firepower. The thickness of the lineup has increased, and the record has naturally improved. In the 4 preseason games, the Clippers have a record of 3 wins and 1 loss, especially Leonard's state, which can be said to be the best in the early seasons in recent years. This has to make people look forward to the performance of the Clippers in the new season.

In terms of the starting lineup for today's game, all members of the Clippers are available to play. Coach Tyronn Lue's latest starting five is: James Harden, Bradley Beal, Kawhi Leonard, Derrick Jones Jr., and Ivica Zubac; for the Jazz, the starting lineup is: Keyante George, Miruk, Filipovsky, Markkanen, and Kessler.

At the beginning of the first quarter, Kessler made a three-pointer from a wide open space at the top of the arc, then cut to the basket and completed an alley-oop dunk. The Jazz stopped the Clippers 15-7 in the beginning. Keyante George stole Harden and then directly launched a counterattack to complete a gliding dunk. In the next round, Harden responded with Markkanen's long three-point shot. Then it was Harden who attracted an offer from the top of the arc and passed the ball without looking at anyone to assist Zubac for a dunk. He has already sent 5 points and 3 assists. Bailey followed suit. After attracting double-teams from the same position, he assisted Kesler to dunk with both hands behind his back. Then Kesler caught the ball in the corner and hit a three-pointer. Currently, he has scored 13 points on 5-for-5. The Clippers made consecutive low-level mistakes. After Bailey stole the ball, he counterattacked and sent out a one-arm chop. The Jazz had opened the point difference to 19 points. Who could have imagined this? Clayton counterattacked, caught the ball and hit a three-pointer. At the end of the first quarter, the Jazz led the Clippers 43-19.

What is surprising is that at the end of the first quarter, Bailey walked to the tunnel for unknown reasons and then returned to the locker room.

In the first quarter of the game, the Clippers only scored 8 goals in a single quarter, but made as many as 9 turnovers, scoring only 19 points, temporarily trailing the Jazz by 24 points.

Back in the second quarter, Mykhailiuk scored 2 three-pointers in a row. The Jazz team is currently 18-for-24 and has led to 25 points. Lopez fired from the outside and scored three three-pointers in a row, and the Clippers narrowed the point difference to 19 points. Markkanen faced Leonard and hit another three-pointer, and the point difference returned to 23 points. Harden broke through and scored with one against four, Zubac staggered to catch the ball and made a difficult layup. Leonard broke out and Harden hit a three-pointer. Kessler was accidentally pushed to the crotch and fell to the ground in pain. It looked really painful. Zubac rose up from the basket and was blocked by two people. Yount George counterattacked and scored again with a buzzer-beating floater. After halftime, the Jazz led the Clippers by 31 points 78-47.

Halftime data, for the Clippers, Harden played 17 minutes and scored 13 points, 1 rebound and 6 assists on 5-of-9 shots; Leonard played 17 minutes, made 1-of-4, 0-for-2 three-pointers and only scored 2 points, 1 rebound and 2 assists, with a game-low plus-minus of -28; Zubac played 15 minutes, scored 13 points and 1 rebound on 6-of-9 shots.

For the Jazz, Kesler played 16 minutes, made all 6 shots, 2 of 2 three-pointers, scored 15 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks; Markkanen played 18 minutes, made 6 of 8 and scored 15 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists.

It is worth mentioning that the Jazz team made a total of 12 of 21 three-pointers in the half, with a shooting rate of 57%. On the other hand, the Clippers only made 3 free throws. Don’t you want to shoot?

Change sides and fight again. Markkanen made a pass to Filipovsky and completed a two-handed dunk. Harden made a long pass and Leonard made a direct mistake and was intercepted. Filipo counterattacked and faced the empty blue and completed another dunk. The Jazz had widened the point difference to a game-high 37 points and stopped the Clippers. Jones Jr. made an air cut to catch the ball and took off, and exploded with one arm to dunk Kessler. It was a refreshment for the whole team, otherwise he was really running for 58 points. Nurkic caught the ball and turned around for a layup. There was no one under the basket and he easily scored. After three quarters, the Jazz still led the Clippers by 28 points 108-80.

In the fourth quarter of the decisive battle, Lopez missed a three-pointer after receiving a pass from Paul. The Clippers were still 32 points behind the Jazz. The game basically lost suspense. Tyronn Lue withdrew the entire starting lineup and surrendered early. In the end, the Clippers defeated the Jazz 108-129, which was really surprising.

In terms of statistics, for the Clippers, Harden scored 15 points, 3 rebounds, 11 assists and 2 turnovers on 5-of-12 shooting; Leonard only scored 10 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists on 3-of-9 shooting, with a plus-minus value of -25, the lowest in the game. He was really lost; Zubac scored 19 points and 6 rebounds; Paul struggled in his debut, scoring only 4 points and 4 assists on 1-of-5 shooting.

For the Jazz, Kessler made all 7 shots, scored 22 points, 2 of 2 three-pointers, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 4 blocks; Markkanen scored 20 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists on 8 of 13 shots.