Blazers News: Portland Starter Injured in First Half of Jazz Game, Out for Night

Yet another Trail Blazers rotation piece will be out for the second half.

Oct 18, 2024; Portland, Oregon, USA; Portland Trail Blazers forward Toumani Camara (33) celebrates after forcing a turnover against the Utah Jazz during the first half at Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images / Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images

Yet another Portland Trail Blazers rotation piece will be out for the second half of the club's ongoing bout against the Western Conference's worst team by record, the Utah Jazz.

Portland's official PR team reports that combo forward Toumani Camara will be shelved after incurring a right foot injury during the bout's first quarter.

Camara, who drew the start at power forward (Jerami Grant started at small forward), appeared in just 8:06 of action, scoring no points on 0-of-4 shooting (all from long range), dishing out one dime and swiping one steal. He notched a -11 for his efforts.

As of this writing, the 4-17 Jazz lead the 8-14 Trail Blazers by 23 points, 67-44, at the break. This is made all the more remarkable by the fact that the Jazz are missing All-Star forward Lauri Markkanen, the team's leading scorer at 19.2 points per on .452/.385/.854 shooting splits, and prolific shooting guard Jordan Clarkson, Utah's fifth-leading scorer at 15.0 points per on a .391/.275/.793 slash line.

Starting Trail Blazers point guard Anfernee Simons is the only Portland player in double digits, with 11 points on 5-of-12 shooting from the field (1-of-5 from deep), three rebounds, and two assists.

Portland is shooting a miserable 17-fo-49 from the field overall (34.7 percent), including a paltry 5-of-23 from deep (21.7 percent).

The Jazz's second-leading scorer, power forward John Collins, and their fifth-leading scorer, Keyonte George, are leading Utah with 12 and 13 points, respectively. The Jazz boast a tremendous rebounding advantage, 35-24, plus a massive passing edge, 17-9.

Utah also leads Portland with its points scored in the paint (32-20), fastbreak points (20-7), and bench scoring (17-11).

Heading into the game, the Jazz had been concerned about protecting the ball and limiting their turnovers. They've lost their last five straight games. Against the mighty Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday, Utah allowed 29 turnovers, leading to 45 Thunder points.

Head coach Will Hardy acknowledged that limiting turnovers would be imperative against Portland, per NBA.com.

"Our ball security got really exposed," Jazz coach Will Hardy said. "They really preyed on us in terms of our lack of quick decision making, (we) got caught in the crowd too much, we didn't fight for our space very well.

On Friday night, Utah does have more turnovers than Portland, but it's still fairly marginal, 5-2.

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