The Los Angeles Clippers absorbed the best shot the Utah Jazz could give them and prevailed in what Paul George called their biggest game of the season, winning 119-111 Wednesday to take a 3-2 lead in their Western Conference semi-final series. 

Hours after learning star forward Kawhi Leonard was out indefinitely with a knee injury, the Clippers turned to George to lead the way on the road against top-seeded Utah. 

George did everything he could, posting 37 points, 16 rebounds and five assists to put Los Angeles one win away from advancing to the conference finals. 

"He's incredible. He's special. Paul's special," said Clippers guard Reggie Jackson.

"The way that he just handled himself, he seemed calm. Tough news to receive [about Leonard] but he seemed calm. He was ready to put the team on his back and carry extra weight."

George did not try and diminish the significance of the win afterward. 

"I thought this was our toughest matchup this postseason, this was the biggest game of our season, especially being down our best player," he told TNT afterward. 

"We wish Kawhi the best and a speedy recovery, but we knew coming into this we had to play together, we had to step up, but we didn't have to [overdo] it.

"I thought everybody played their roles, we did a great job, we played collectively. We limited our turnovers, and I thought that's what was the key tonight."

Los Angeles gave the ball away only 10 times, but just as positive for them was watching the Jazz come up one short of an NBA playoff record with 17 made three-pointers in the first half but only lead by five going into the break. 

"I thought a lot of their threes were tough ones," said George. "We didn't overreact. They came out hot. The good thing about it was we were able to weather the storm.

"We came down and we attacked them on offence as well. We just took their blows, we took their punches -- we just thought they couldn't sustain that over a full 48 minutes."

They could not, whether through the Clippers' defensive efforts or a lack of focus on both ends of the court. 

"I didn't feel like the sense of urgency was there defensively at the beginning of the game," said Jazz big man Rudy Gobert, the NBA Defensive Player of the Year. 

Whatever the reason, the Clippers now control their own destiny in the series, even without having Leonard available for the immediate future. 

"We've been talking about it all year," said Clippers coach Tyronn Lue. "We're not going to point the finger. We're not going to blame anyone.

"When things get tough, we come together. That's the kind of culture I wanted to establish here."

Paul George earned the praise of his coach Tyronn Lue as the Los Angeles Clippers hit back to beat the Utah Jazz in Game 3 of the Western Conference semi-finals.

Having lost the opening two games in Utah – with George, the subject of vitriol from the Jazz supporters, struggling to find his best form, although he did score 27 points in Game 2 – the Clippers struck back on their home court on Saturday in a 132-106 victory.

George was decisive, scoring 31 points, converting six three-pointers, while tallying five assists and three rebounds.

His 20 points in the first half set the standard for the Clippers, who also had fellow talisman Kawhi Leonard firing on all cylinders, putting up 34 points in 38 minutes.

"Oh, we're a different team," Lue said when asked to explain the impact of George getting into his stride early on.

"We know that. It's been like that all season long. He's been great. You know, he had one bad game, whatever, but people are going to have bad games."

The Clippers will aim to level the series in Game 4 on Monday, which again takes place at Staples Center, and with Leonard and George at their best, Lue was in a bullish mood.

"With our two guys, we know that they are two of the best in the league," Lue said.

"I don't go to Mastro's [restaurant] to order the ketchup. I go to order the steak. And tonight, our guys were steak. That's what we need."

While the Clippers' stars thrived, Utah guard Donovan Mitchell endured a difficult game, with an apparent recurrence of an ankle injury that kept him out for the final 16 games of the regular season forcing an early exit from the court, though he expects to be fighting fit for Game 4.

The Los Angeles Clippers have their backs against the wall but head coach Tyronn Lue is confident the championship-chasing franchise will show their true colours in Game 3 of the Western Conference first round.

Expectations are high with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George leading the way in Los Angeles, however the Clippers trail the Dallas Mavericks 2-0 heading into Friday's showdown in the NBA playoffs after back-to-back defeats on home court.

The fourth-seeded Clippers are looking to banish the demons of last season, which saw the team sensationally surrender a 3-1 series lead in a 4-3 defeat to the Denver Nuggets in the Conference semi-finals under former coach Doc Rivers.

"I think when you're down 2-0 and you're coming into another team's arena, it shows what you're made of," Lue said on Thursday.

"Our toughness all year, just trust, sticking together, this is going to show us tomorrow who we are and what we are made of. So I'm excited to see [it]."

Lue added: "Urgency is the right word. Pressure or panic, I don't believe in that. ... [The Clippers have to] understand the urgency and understand what we are trying to do and basically everybody get on the same page.

"That's the biggest thing for me. But like I said, we are urgent and we are ready to go. We cleaned up some things we need to clean up."

The Clippers have lost five consecutive playoffs games since last winning in the postseason – Game 4 against the Nuggets in 2019-20.

"You can't hit back if you don't swing ... We've got to bring physicality to the game," Lue, who won the championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016, said. "They've definitely been the more physical team, and I don't know why that is because we talk about that. So in order to throw a punch, you've got to swing."

"We have got to be more physical, we've got to swing and we have to come out punching and we can't keep getting behind the 8-ball in the first quarter. We have to be better defensively to start the game. We are well aware of that, and now we have to go out and execute it."

Los Angeles Clippers coach Ty Lue is paying no attention to those who have accused his team of tanking their final regular-season games to avoid facing the Los Angeles Lakers in the playoffs, adamant he is prioritising health.

The Clippers have been beaten by the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder recently having rested star players such as Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.

Those losses saw the Clippers drop from third to fourth in Western Conference seeding for the playoffs, leading to critics suggesting they were purposely trying to engineer a scenario whereby they did not face defending champions the Lakers in the first round.

As it happened, the Lakers ultimately finished seventh in the West to set up a play-in game against the Golden State Warriors, while the Clippers are due to meet the Dallas Mavericks first up for the second year in succession.

But Lue was defiant in his response when questioned about his selection choices on Tuesday.

"I don't give a damn what anybody else thinks on the outside," he said. "We decided to go health over anything else.

"We finally got our team healthy, and that is what we focused on. Whatever people say on the outside, I don't care.

"I don't read Twitter, have Twitter and Insta-twit, all that. I don't care about all that. I am my own man and I do what I want to do, that's how I live my life.

"If you look at our Cleveland [Cavaliers] days, none of our starters played the last two games of the season.

"We took health, and that is the most important thing to me."

Ty Lue lauded a "complete game" from Paul George after the seven-time NBA All-Star inspired the Los Angeles Clippers to a 113-112 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers.

George scored a game-high 33 points, claimed 11 rebounds and provided three assists in the Clippers' win at Moda Center on Tuesday.

Clippers coach Lue was full of praise for shooting guard George, who sparkled in the absence of the injured Kawhi Leonard.

"He's been carrying us," Lue said. "He's really stepped up by making his team-mates better but also scoring the basketball.

"He's just doing everything. It was a complete game tonight and we needed every bit of it."

George was on target with two free throws with 4.8 seconds to play, moving the third-placed Clippers to 41-19 in the Western Conference.

Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts took the positives out of a narrow defeat.

"I liked the way we played tonight," Stotts said. "I liked the way we played in some of these other games.

"We came up short, but I thought tonight we competed really well against a really good team. We had some opportunities in the last minute that we weren't able to capitalise on."

Leonard will be out until next week due to a foot injury.

Lue said of the two-time NBA champion: "He wants to get out there. But right now, it's not the smartest thing to do with him feeling it and trying to manage it for the most part for a while now.

"We just got to be smart about it. Sometimes you got to protect the player from themselves, and right now that is what we are doing."

Paul George enjoyed leading the Los Angeles Clippers to a 113-103 win over the Phoenix Suns, who he again accused of "chirping" in a heated encounter.

The Clippers and the Suns are each in contention in the West, but Phoenix's hopes of reeling in leaders the Utah Jazz were hit by Thursday's defeat.

This was the teams' second meeting of the season and the Clippers' second win, with George influential in both.

The seven-time All-Star had a season-high 39 points back in January, after he which he claimed the game had seen "a lot of chirping and people just living in the past".

And the same phrase came up again on Thursday after 33 points on 12-for-19 shooting.

It was a third straight Clippers win against a team in the playoff places in the West, with George also scoring 39 against the Portland Trail Blazers, but the in-form forward was especially motivated for this game.

"We focused on us," George said. "I don't know what that chirp is about. We focused on us.

"I don't care what they're doing over there. I don't care who they are or what they're doing.

"I'm locked in. They can do the chirping, I let them have it tonight. I just stayed in my zone, stayed in my place, I don't know.

"I don't care what they're doing. We're focused on us over here. We're focused on getting better. Tonight was a fun matchup, and we appreciate the challenge."

Suns star Devin Booker had both a flagrant foul and a technical foul on Thursday, while Patrick Beverley (one flagrant) and Marcus Morris Sr (two technicals) were both ejected for the Clippers.

Booker and George each had technicals in the first game – one of only two for the latter all season.

Clippers coach Ty Lue said: "I don't have any concerns. I love it.

"When you are competing at a high level against one of the best teams in the league, do what you've go to do to win. And I thought our guys were physical. We competed, we fought.

"There are going to be games like this where it is going to be chippy. They are fighting for something, we are fighting for something, so it is going to happen and I am okay with it."

Tyronn Lue relished seeing Kawhi Leonard and Paul George return from injury as the Los Angeles Clippers impressively beat the Utah Jazz.

The Jazz had won nine straight games and 20 of their last 21 NBA contests coming into Friday's game.

However, their streak came to an end as the Clippers emerged triumphant 116-112 in a battle between two championship contenders.

Leonard led the way for the home Clippers with 29 points as they improved to 22-9.

Donovan Mitchell had a game-high 35 points, but the Western Conference leading Jazz fell to 24-6.

Leonard had missed the previous three games with a lower leg contusion, while George was back after seven games out with a swollen toe.

The win came two days after the Clippers had lost by 18 to the Jazz playing without Leonard, George and Nicolas Batum.

"They are the best team in the NBA right now, record-wise, we knew that they won 20 of 21 coming into it – we understood that," Lue said after the win. 

"We got our guys back and we wanted to win this game and the guys went out and did a hell of a job.

"Our defense was pretty good until the heroics of Donovan Mitchell down the stretch.

"Pat Beverley and PG, we did a decent job on that first half and second half, he [Mitchell] got going, that's what great players do. 

"Overall, defensively, I thought we were pretty good like I said until the last 40 seconds or whatever it was of the game."

George had 15 points, six rebounds and five assists in 27 minutes.

"I wasn't ready to play 30-plus," he said. "Got to get back to that basketball conditioning.

"I probably would have hurt the team if I'd been on the floor past the minutes I was."

The Jazz were outrebounded 45-38, leaving Mitchell and Rudy Gobert clear where the game was lost.

"We lost the game on the boards," said Mitchell. "It was second-chance points that really hurt us. 

"If you look at the overall game, we played solid defense throughout, but they just came out there and got the extra boards and rebounds and we just got to do a better job of that.

"This is a bump in the road and a good one."

Gobert feels the loss will ultimately benefit the Jazz.

He said: "If we get those rebounds, we win this game. [The Clippers are] a very good team.

"They came out rested, they came out ready and it felt like a playoff game – the intensity, the tough shots that they were making all night. 

"It was a good opportunity for us to just keep getting better."

The Los Angeles Clippers will be without Paul George for their upcoming two-game road trip due to injury.

Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue confirmed George's absence for games against the Minnesota Timberwolves and Chicago Bills as the NBA All-Star deals with a swollen right toe.

George has been sidelined for the Clippers' past two games.

"Staying back home and getting some treatment," Lue said of George on Tuesday. "And we'll re-evaluate when we get back."

The Clippers face the Timberwolves on Wednesday before visiting the Bulls on Friday.

George is averaging 24.4 points, 6.2 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game for the Clippers this season.

The Clippers (17-8) are third in the Western Conference, behind leaders the Utah Jazz (19-5) and defending champions the Los Angeles Lakers (19-6), following back-to-back losses.

Paul George was "super relieved" that both he and Kawhi Leonard were healthy after entering the NBA's contact tracing protocols – and the duo showed the Los Angeles Clippers exactly what they had been missing on Friday.

Having sat out two games due to guidelines put in place amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the superstars were cleared to return to action for the Clippers at the Orlando Magic.

George had 26 points, nine rebounds and five assists in the convincing 116-90 victory on the road, while Leonard contributed 24 points.

They combined for 35 points in the first half as the Clippers improved to 15-5 for the season, meaning they sit behind only the in-form Utah Jazz – who have won 10 in a row – in the Western Conference standings.

"I was super relieved that we were both healthy, first and foremost," George told the media. "We had been playing so well that it was unfortunate that we had to take the hiatus, but safety is first."

Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue was able to rest both George and Leonard in the fourth quarter with the Clippers in complete control.

Speaking after the win, Lue said having the pair back was "huge", considering they make life so much easier for the rest of the roster.

"I think on a night when guys were a little tired, just having their presence was big for us," Lue said.

"It was huge. Just making plays for everybody else, making the game easy.

"When teams double-team Kawhi or PG on the post-ups or pick-and-roll, it just makes it easier because our guys are getting open shots, so we needed those guys."

The Clippers went 1-1 without George and Leonard at the start of a six-game road trip; they are back in action on Sunday, taking on the New York Knicks.

Tyronn Lue hailed Kawhi Leonard's performance against the Oklahoma City Thunder, acknowledging the Los Angeles Clippers had to "ride him pretty hard" to get the win.

Leonard stepped up with 34 points, nine rebounds and eight assists to drag the Clippers to a 108-100 triumph in Sunday's contest.

He became the fifth player in the franchise's history to register those numbers and the first since Ron Harper against the Golden State Warriors in March 1994.

The Clippers have now won seven straight games and hold the joint-best record in the NBA at 13-4.

With Paul George sitting out the closing minutes due to hamstring tightness, head coach Lue praised Leonard for stepping up.

"He's been phenomenal for us, tonight we had to ride him," he said.

"Kawhi had it going so we played through him a lot, especially in the second half. He created points for himself and for the team as well.

"We had to ride him pretty hard just so we could continue to keep the lead and play through him a lot, I think he did a good job with that."

George had 11 points from 33 minutes and Lue explained why he was not involved in the final stages.

"I benched him…I benched him!" Lue joked, before adding: "No, I'm just joking. He had some tightness going into the game tonight.

"He got loose when he played but had tightness, that last four and a half minutes he tightened up again so it was just a precaution. Just his hamstring."

The Clippers are flying in the NBA and Leonard offered his thoughts on why the team are firing.

"I think our three-point percentage, not allowing threes, making sure the other team isn't getting good looks from three-point line is helping us," he said.

"We're playing team basketball, sharing the ball, staying level-headed, staying positive, making shots right now. We're trying to get better."