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Los Angeles • Trevor Booker was surprised by the referee's decision. In the third quarter of Saturday night's preseason loss to the Clippers, the Jazz forward fouled Blake Griffin hard to stop a fast-break dunk, and the act was deemed to be flagrant.

But Booker wasn't necessarily surprised by what happened next.

"Not really," he said, "because it was him. We have our history."

When Booker was in Washington, he tangled with Griffin and had previously called for the league to suspend the L.A. All-Star.

On Saturday, Griffin took exception with the foul, stared down Booker and then put his hand on the back of the Jazzman's head.

"I thought it was just a game foul," Booker said afterward. "Obviously they thought it was a flagrant. I thought it was a good foul. He got a little heated and grabbed my head. That's the only way I got mad."

The two players had to be separated by their teammates. Booker, Griffin and Clippers guard Chris Paul were all hit with technical fouls. In the fracas, Booker sprained his right ankle and sat out the rest of the game.

"It's a little sore, but nothing major. I'll be back in a couple days," he said in the locker room, wearing a boot on his foot. "Somebody tried to hold me back. I tried to break away and ended up twisting it."

From the Clippers perspective, Booker's foul was just the latest in a line of what they see as overly aggressive fouls on Griffin, who told reporters afterward he would "probably" opt to retaliate against a player eventually.

"I was going to [take things further]," Griffin said, according to the O.C. Register, "and I thought, 'It's preseason. It's not worth it. That's not the person I'm going to waste it on."

From the Jazz's perspective, it was a hard but clean foul and one they'd hope to see Booker make again.

"I think that's just two teams that were competing," Jazz coach Quin Snyer said. "Obviously, Trevor, thats' why we like him. He plays hard. He sticks his nose in there and plays defense. I think that just happens when guys want to win and they're competing."

Hurry-up offense

Saturday night's game clocked in at two hours and 36 minutes. That's probably too long for the taste of some around the NBA, which will experiment Sunday with trimming a minute off each quarter in a preseason game between the Celtics and the Nets.

But it's not too long for Clippers coach Doc Rivers.

"I love the game, so I could play for five hours and I'm very happy," he said. "But I get that we want do to things quicker. I'm all for experiment. … But if it's just to shorten the game so we can get to the restaurants, then we could do it on other ways probably, too. Like, you know, a 20-second timeout actually being a 20-second timeout and things like that."

Injury report

Alec Burks, who has been dealing with a bruised left shoulder, is a game-time decision to play Sunday night against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Booker (sprained ankle) is doubtful to play. —

Jazz at Lakers

O Sunday, 7:30 p.m.

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