Second-Half Letdown Dooms Blazers In Blowout Loss To Jazz
The first 24 minutes of the Trail Blazers' tilt with Utah Jazz marked some of the best basketball they've played all season. Unfortunately for Portland, the game wasn't called at intermission.
The Blazers failed another test against one of the league's best teams on Thursday, falling 122-103 to Donovan Mitchell and the Jazz despite taking a lead into halftime. Even more dispiriting for Portland? Utah wasn't just missing Sixth Man of the Year frontrunner Jordan Clarkson, but played less than 24 hours after losing to the Phoenix Suns in one of the most competitive games of the season.
Mitchell was the best player on the floor Thursday night, tormenting every defender the Blazers threw at him en route to 37 points on 25 shots. Making his performance especially impressive is that he didn't even have the touch from deep, missing all but one of his eight three-point attempts. Mitchell got wherever and whatever he wanted anyway, the latest opposing star to exploit Portland's lacking point-of-attack defense.
Damian Lillard led the Blazers with 23 points and six assists, but never got fully comfortable offensively due in part to going 3-of-12 from deep. Both he and C.J. McCollum shot 8-of-21 overall, right in line with Portland's 39.6 percent shooting team-wide.
The Blazers' starters didn't fare well offensively against a near-elite defense, especially after halftime. But it was the bench that let Portland down most on both sides of the ball. Carmelo Anthony and Enes Kanter were routinely exploited defensively, a reality supported as much by the eye test as their ugly plus-minus numbers.
There's no getting around it – this loss seems telling of the Blazers' true place in the Western Conference pecking order.
Utah, the league's best three-point shooting team, went 12-of-42 from beyond the arc. Mike Conley, Bojan Bogdanovic and Joe Ingles managed just 35 points on 38 shots. The Jazz were short-handed and road-weary, while Portland was fully healthy and coming off a day of rest.
None of it mattered.
Mitchell and Rudy Gobert were the most dominant forces on the floor even when the Blazers were keeping pace with the Jazz. Once Utah's role players gave them consistent support after halftime, it quickly became clear Portland was outclassed – and might have been no matter how many missed tough shots Lillard or McCollum made.