INGLEWOOD, Calif. – At least Jazz fans didn’t have to stay up late to find out the result of Monday’s game. At the end of the first quarter it was all but over.

Led by James Harden’s 24 points, the Los Angeles Clippers had a 44-20 lead after the first 12 minutes. And it never got closer after that, as the Clippers beat Utah 144-107 at the Intuit Dome.

“We kicked our butts in the game,” Jazz coach Will Hardy said.

The Jazz have been the balm for the Clippers this season. Utah traveled to Inglewood twice to face a team that had just lost three games. and twice the Clippers used it as a real play.

Harden finished the game with 41 points, Norman Powell added 29 and Ivica Zubac had 19 points and 12 rebounds in the blowout. The three combined for a score of 31-44 on the night.

As a team, LA shot 60% from the field, 54% from 3-point range and led by as many as 42 points.

But everything after the first quarter was mostly just window dressing.

“The game was really decided in the first quarter, that’s what matters,” Hardy said. “But you know, the message to the team in a moment like this is that we are all judged often, but ultimately we are judged most by how we act when things don’t go our way.”

The 144 points are the most Utah has given up this season, but this was far from an outlier. The Jazz have now allowed four of their last five opponents to score 130 or more points. The fifth game? Utah’s 141-99 win over Portland – yes, makes sense.

But overall, not much has happened for Utah lately — at least not on defense.

This all seemed to be shaping up to be a no good, very bad quarter. The Jazz fouled too many times, had too many turnovers (stop us if you’ve heard that one before), and had no answer after a player got hot (that one, too).

When a team is outscored by a single player in a quarter (Harden led the Jazz 24-20 after the first 12 minutes), it’s easy to know that things aren’t going well.

“We assume that there won’t always be perfect transmission after saying something once or even 10 times,” Hardy said. “We have to stick with it every day. We need to continue to teach it in a variety of ways because everyone learns a little differently.”

Still, Hardy praised his team for at least staying involved in the competition. He didn’t notice much bad body language and felt the desire to get back in the game.

Markkanen scored 8 of his 17 points in the second quarter as he tried to inject some life into the game. But any small embers were soon extinguished by another 3-point shot by the Clippers or another turnover by Utah.

In a season deliberately designed for losses, nights like Monday can happen – and probably will happen again. The hope is that the Jazz can at least get something out of it.

“It’s easy to be a good teammate, friend, brother, son, husband, boyfriend – all of that when things are going well,” Hardy said. “But in the end, we will find out who we really are through our behavior when things don’t go our way. The most important thing for me is that our team continues to perform as a team at this moment.”

“We stick together, we win together, we lose together, and tomorrow we’ll get back to work and try to continue to improve as a group.”