Jordan Clarkson: If Clippers Tanked Games to Face Jazz, 'That's the Fate They Chose'

On Tuesday, Utah Jazz guard Jordan Clarkson told reporters the Los Angeles Clippers would rue any potential tanking. 

"If they were losing games trying to come play us, that's the fate they chose," he said before Game 1 of their Western Conference Semifinals tips off at 10 p.m. ET on Tuesday. "We're gonna come out there and lace ’em up."

The irony in all of this, of course, is that the seventh-seeded Lakers, whom the Clips were supposedly trying to avoid, are now out of the playoffs after losing to the second-seeded Phoenix Suns. The fourth-seeded Clippers, meanwhile, needed seven games to get past the Dallas Mavericks. 

And now the top-seeded Jazz await, eager to remind the Clippers that the Lakers aren't the only threat in the West.