SALT LAKE CITY _ And so another typical Clippers postseason rolls on.
When you think they'll win, they lose. And when you think they're lost, well ...
In the dying days of a core group whose six-year run together is ending, the Clippers showed up here Friday night and sprinted away with the one thing nobody thought they had left.
One last breath.
Charged with staving off playoff elimination in arguably the NBA's loudest home arena and without one of their best players, the Clippers escaped Vivint Smart Home Arena with the unlikeliest of life.
They defeated the Utah Jazz, 98-93, to knot the series at three games apiece and set up Game 7 Sunday at Staples Center at 12:30 p.m..
But barely, barely, barely.
With 1:29 left, the Clippers led by 10 points and it was all but over, but then the Clipper Curse momentarily stuck its head in the building before being shooed away.
Chris Paul lost the ball twice, the Jazz scored seven straight points, and only when an off-balance, potential game-tying three-point attempt by Joe Johnson clanked off the rim were the Clippers saved.
Doc Rivers screamed. Paul barked and eventually tore off his shirt. A ball was thrown to the rafters and eventually the black shirts bounced off the court in giddy laughter, leaving thousands of white shirts staring in stunned silence.
In a matter of hours, the Clippers have gone from extinction to the excitement of a deciding game that, two days ago, was considered so unlikely fans were being emailed advertisements for discounted Game 7 tickets.
As quick as one of the Paul drives that again dominated the night _ he scored 29 points _ they have gone from forgotten to favorites to play in the second round against the Golden State Warriors.
Forget, for a second, that the Warriors appear unbeatable. Forget that the Clippers must forge forward without Blake Griffin, who is lost for the postseason with a toe injury.
When faced with the likelihood of quitting, the Clippers didn't quit, and their legacy just gets nuttier. Remember in 2015 when they won an elimination Game 6 in San Antonio before returning to win the first-round series in a memorable Game 7 at Staples Center? They are now on the verge of doing it again, and who would have thought?
Nobody except the Clippers, it seemed, believed they could win Friday's game in this environment. It was so loud, with so much shaking and clapping, the risers that held the visiting media constantly rattled and swayed. The Jazz were so confident that during one timeout, the video board displayed two fans holding up posters reading, "Warriors Take Note. We're Coming."
That timeout was in the game's first three minutes.
But it was the Jazz who played tight. It was they who acted like their season was on the line, and maybe it was.
"Yeah, it's a must-win for us, we know that," Rivers, the Clippers' coach, before the game. "(But) it's a must-win for them too. They don't want to have to go back to a Game 7 on the road."
The Clippers led 47-45 at halftime, during which the crowd was fired up by a performance from a rapper who calls himself "James the Mormon." The halftime break was extended when officials changed the net on the Jazz's basket, and it seemed to work, as the Jazz scored the first six points while the Clippers were committing four consecutive turnovers.
When Rivers finally called a timeout with 9:17 left in the third quarter, the Clippers trailing 51-47, he was screaming and gesturing at his team while the crowd around him chanted "Beat L.A."
It was a turning point. The Clippers responded with a DeAndre Jordan dunk and a Paul runner and then rolled through the quarter with help from everyone from Austin Rivers to Jamal Crawford to take an eight-point lead at the end of the third on a follow-up dunk by Jordan.
In the end, the Clippers dominated defensively by holding Utah to seven-for-26 three-point shooting, outhustling the tentative Jazz and outrebounding them by three.
As everyone surely knows by now, the Clippers could contractually implode soon. This summer Paul and Griffin can opt out of their contracts, while J.J. Redick becomes a full-fledged free agent.
If this is truly one last ride, it is one typical of the Clippers, veering in all directions, bumping along the road's edges, bringing back the best and worst of memories.
Remember some of this stuff?
Back in 2011, Clippers fans roared when Griffin dunked over a car. Four years later, those same fans were stunned silent when the Clippers blew the 19-point second-half lead in the potential clinching game against the Houston Rockets.
Folks marveled over that Game 7 victory against the Spurs in 2015. But barely six months later, they lamented when Griffin broke his right hand when he punched an assistant equipment manager outside a Toronto restaurant.
There were constant Paul postseason heroics. But then there was Paul's last-minute meltdown in a swing game at Oklahoma City in 2014.
Remember the great Jordan reversal in the summer of 2015, when he joined the Dallas Mavericks then reneged and returned to the Clippers? It was all so much fun, and it seemed to bond the team, until it didn't.
Last season, after two opening playoff wins against the Portland Trail Blazers, the Clippers looked like the best team in the NBA. Then Griffin injured his leg and Paul busted his hand and they didn't win another game in the series.
There were wonderful moments. There were awful moments. In the end, none of those moments got them as far as the Western Conference finals, and that's really all that matters.
Soon, the next chapter will begin. But not so soon. Not so fast. At least for one more game, those crazy Clippers ride on.
