Los Angeles Clippers' Kawhi Leonard (No.2) and Marcus Morris (No.8) defend against Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell on Tuesday in Salt Lake City. Photo: IC

Donovan Mitchell scored 45 points and Rudy Gobert made a clutch block at the buzzer as the Utah Jazz rallied to beat the Los Angeles Clippers 112-109 in the opening game of their NBA playoff ­series on Tuesday.

Mitchell scored 32 of his game-high 45 in the second half, carrying the Jazz on his back offensively after the team got off to a sluggish start in the best-of-seven Western Conference second round series.

"I let my team down in the first half," Mitchell said. "They were kicking my butt. I said, 'It is on me.' I had to set the tone and I did."

Game 2 is Thursday in Utah.

Mitchell got help on the defensive end from France's Gobert, who is in the running to win his third defensive ­player of the year award.

Gobert helped sealed the win when he denied Clippers forward Marcus Morris' three-point attempt at the final buzzer in front of the crowd of 18,007 at the Vivint Smart Home Arena. 

The Jazz defense smothered attempts by Kawhi Leonard and Paul George before the ball ended up in the hands of Morris.

Despite coming off a short rest ­after beating the Dallas Mavericks in seven games, the banged-up Clippers stormed out the gate and took a big lead by going on a 22-2 run in the first quarter. Los Angeles led 25-18 at the end of the first and by 13, 60-47, at the half.

The Jazz had six days of rest between series and it took them half the game to shake off the rust, but when they finally got going in the third quarter they outscored the Clippers 32-19 to level the score 79-79 heading into the fourth.

"We scrambled on the fly," said Mitchell, who missed a month of the regular season with an ankle injury. "We did some things wrong and we are going to have to make some adjustments. We have to come to play every single day."

­Bojan Bogdanovic and Jordan Clarkson chipped in 18 points each while Joe Ingles added eight points with seven assists in the win.