Salt Lake City, Utah – The Los Angeles Clippers finally got a road win against the Utah Jazz in the Western Conference semifinals on Wednesday night.

Paul George (31) stepped into the role of the leader as the Clippers survived a barrage of high-powered offense to overcome the Jazz 119-111 in Game 5, needing one more win to knock off the NBA’s overall top seed in the playoffs.

The Clippers were missing their best player, and one of the league’s best postseason performers in Kawhi Leonard for Wednesday night’s game, as he’s out with an ACL injury. That didn’t matter as George took it upon himself to put up 37 points and 16 rebounds to lead LA to the decisive road win. The Clippers now lead 3-2 and head back home for a potential series clincher.

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Bojan Bogdanovich gave a first-half shooting masterclass, with 23 of his 32 total points coming before halftime. The Jazz as a team also hit 17 three-pointers during that time, but the Clippers stayed right with them, only trailing by five at the midway point. The third quarter belonged to the Clippers when they kept up the offensive pressure, but had their defense take over the Jazz to hold them to just 18 points.

From that point on, all the momentum swung towards LA, as the Jazz couldn’t quite keep up. Marcus Morris, Sr. scored 25 and Reggie Jackson added 22 to help ensure that LA could win without Leonard.

For the first time in the playoffs, the Jazz find themselves in a do or die situation.

It’s too early to tell, and there were no updates after the game if Leonard’s knee issue will be resolved in time for him to help the Clippers clinch the series in game six. His presence would definitely make things easier for LA to get the upset victory, but after Wednesday's spectacular showing, they should have a lot of confidence for a repeat performance.

The crucial Game 6 between these two teams is on Friday night, back in Los Angeles.