So, What Happened To The Los Angeles Clippers On Opening Night?

The Los Angeles Clippers signed Bradley Beal and Brook Lopez, welcomed back Chris Paul, and dealt with the entire Kawhi Leonard-aspiration saga. All these storylines came to a head on Wednesday night, when the Clippers got started with what truly matters.

It was the start of their 2025–26 season. But by the end of that night, Clippers fans were left wondering what happened to the team that they’ve stuck with through thick and thin.

There were several things that went wrong in the Clippers’ 129-108 loss to the Utah Jazz. Perhaps the first, and the most obvious, blunder was losing in lopsided fashion to a team that has not made it to the playoffs in three years.

Here’s what the Clippers allowed the Jazz to do in the first quarter of their opening-night matchup: score 43 points while coughing up just 19 points of their own. By halftime, the Clips were staring at a 78-47 deficit, the Jazz were feeling themselves, and fans were wondering what had happened to a squad that had been considered an undesirable matchup in last year’s playoffs.

The Clippers’ defense seemed to particularly struggle with containing the Jazz’s top big men. Sweet-shooting Lauri Markkanen finished with 20 points on 8-for-13 shooting from the field (including 4-for-7 from deep), while workhorse Walker Kessler had 22 points and nine rebounds.

The rebounding department was yet another category won by the Jazz, who collected 46 boards to the Clippers’ 38. On top of this, Utah had the edge in points in the paint (58-46) and committed two fewer turnovers than their opponents.

At one point, the Jazz led by a whopping 37 points. Though the likes of Ivica Zubac (19 points, seven rebounds, three assists) and James Harden (15 points, 11 assists) tried to keep the Clippers afloat, the game was all but decided in the first 24 minutes.

As for Leonard, he turned in just 10 points, making just three of his nine field-goal attempts. For all the attention that he drew in the offseason with his shady endorsement deal, the former Finals MVP could not make basketball headlines in the Clippers’ debut game. 

The team has 81 games to go in the regular season, but after Wednesday’s debacle, they’ll need to make swift adjustments if they have aspirations to go far.