The Los Angeles Clippers truly couldn't have started the 2025-26 regular season any worse than they did on Wednesday night in Utah. The Jazz, the team that won only 17 games last season (the lowest in the league), blew out the Clippers, 129-108. A young Utah team ran an old LA team off the floor — literally.
Los Angeles never held the lead. Utah came out hot, dropping 43 points in the first quarter alone on 16-of-20 shooting. The Clippers shot 8-of-19 in the first quarter for 19 points (they committed nine turnovers during that span). The Jazz led by as many as 37 points (!!), so the final score actually made the game seem slightly better than it was.
It was an exciting offseason for LA (minus the Kawhi Leonard stuff), but one of the main reservations about the Clippers entering the season was their age and, in turn, injury concerns. Los Angeles has the oldest roster in the league, with an average age of 30.7, which ESPN's Bobby Marks called "seasoned."
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) October 21, 2025
Now, experience isn't a bad thing, but on Wednesday, that experience didn't help the Clippers. The Jazz will likely sit at the bottom of the West again, so it's not like you can pinpoint LA's poor all-around effort on opening the season against a dominant team like OKC. The words 'dominant' and 'Utah' don't go together — not in the NBA — but you wouldn't have known that watching the Jazz embarrass the Clippers.
Clippers got worked by a young, rebuilding Jazz team
Leonard, James Harden, or Bradley Beal didn't lead the Clippers in scoring. Ivica Zubac did with 19 points on 9-of-13 shooting from the field. Leonard scored only 10 points on 3-of-9 shooting from the field. He had only four shot attempts at the half. Harden, meanwhile, finished with 15 points on 2-of-9 shooting from three. Beal had five points on 2-of-5 shooting.
LA's veteran trio didn't look like one that can lead the Clippers to the playoffs in a stacked Western Conference, but Lauri Markkanen, who is four years younger than Beal, the youngest in the above trio, and Walker Kessler, who is 24, looked like they could lead the Jazz to the NBA Finals.
The season isn't won in game one. There are still 81 games left in the regular season. It'd be premature to write the Clippers off after one game. After watching film from whatever that was, they need to put Wednesday's game in the rearview mirror and look forward to Friday's home opener against the Suns. Let's not make this a trend, please.