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Tuesday, Apr. 17 9:00pm ET
Despite struggling at home, Utah gets to stay at home

RECAP | BOX SCORE | GAME FLOW

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- John Stockton admits the Utah Jazz have struggled at home this season. He's quick to add that it doesn't mean anything now.

Karl Malone scored 34 points and Stockton had nine of his 12 in the fourth quarter as the Jazz rallied for a 97-92 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday night.

The victory secured the No. 4 seed and first-round home-court advantage in the Western Conference playoffs for the Jazz, who will meet the Dallas Mavericks starting this weekend.

"It's still important," Stockton said when asked about having home-court advantage. "It doesn't guarantee anything, but it's good to have."

However, playing at home might not be such a good thing for Utah.

The Jazz have struggled at home this season, losing nine of their last 10 in the Delta Center against teams bound for the playoffs. And this time it was the Clippers taking Utah to the wire, not the Lakers, Kings or Spurs.

"We had a difficult time with them," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "I don't think people realize how difficult they are to play. They have so many guys who can put the ball on the floor and beat you off the dribble."

The Jazz end the regular season Wednesday night in Phoenix, so their next home game will be against the Mavericks. Stockton said it's time to forget what's happened at home up to this point.

"The good thing now is that they're all behind us," he said. "Now we get to start fresh. We're fortunate that we don't have to think about those things anymore."

Lamar Odom, held to three points at halftime, finished with 19 but fouled out with 3:10 to play after colliding on defense with Bryon Russell.

"Bryon Russell comes running into me. He did a little acting job and got the foul," Odom said, breaking into a smile. "None of my fouls were on-the-ball, aggressive defensive fouls."

When Odom went to the bench, he took his scoring with him. He also picked up a technical foul for laughing about the call and the Jazz used the sequence to turn an 81-80 deficit into an 82-81 lead.

"If he would have just let me go, he would have been all right," Russell said.

Jeff McInnis scored to give the Clippers an 87-86 lead with 1:54 remaining, but Stockton found Danny Manning cutting into the lane and then dished to Russell for a 3-pointer to put the Jazz ahead for good.

"I don't know how many times Bryon Russell has stuck a dagger into people from that corner," Clippers center Sean Rooks said.

Utah's 91-87 lead was safe. Eric Piatkowski missed an open 3-pointer but collected his own rebound, then put up a runner in the lane. Malone got a finger on it, the Jazz got the rebound and held on in the final minute.

"Going into this season we believed in ourselves, but a lot of people didn't. ... To win 53 games is a credit to those guys in the locker room, the coaching staff. It was a great win," Malone said.

Utah barely avoided finishing the regular season with 14 home defeats.

That hasn't happened since 1985-86, when Malone was a rookie and Los Angeles rookie Darius Miles was 4½. The Clippers haven't won in Salt Lake City since 1989, losing 24 in a row in the Delta Center and the old Salt Palace.

McInnis scored 20 points to lead Los Angeles, which had won three in a row.

Russell scored 12 and Manning and Donyell Marshall each had 11 for the Jazz.

The Jazz scored the game's first 12 points, but Los Angeles closed to 47-44 at the break. After two free throws by McInnis, the Clippers led 63-58 with 1:44 to go in the third.

Odom closed the period with a three-point play for a 68-64 lead. Russell's 3-point attempt bounced off the rim at the horn, and an anxious feeling settled over the arena as the Jazz trailed 68-64 entering the final period.

Game notes
For much of the first half, the shot clock at the Clippers' end of the floor malfunctioned, causing a few breaks in play while crews tried to fix it. ... The average NBA experience on the Clippers' roster is 3.8 years. Utah's average is 9.4 years. ... Stockton had nine assists, putting him at 14,501 during his 17-year career. He's the NBA's career leader in that category.

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RECAPS
Toronto 94
Detroit 92

Atlanta 122
Washington 119

Miami 91
Milwaukee 89

Chicago 100
New Jersey 94

Philadelphia 111
Indiana 105

Houston 114
Minnesota 87

Utah 97
LA Clippers 92

San Antonio 99
Portland 93

LA Lakers 108
Denver 91


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