OK, now it’s time to worry.
Any hope that the Portland Trail Blazers’ two pre-season defeats in Denver last week were the product of complicated new defensive schemes, integration of new players, a reduced training ground and the All-Star Damian Lillard missing one of the two games were trampled on Wednesday night.
Portland probably played worse against Utah at Moda Center to open the season, dropping 120-100 in a game that stopped being competitive in the second quarter.
All of this occurred after Portland (0-1) reversed some of the new defensive schemes, performed three additional training sessions and had Lillard for an entire game.
Speaking of Lillard, he didn’t score in the first half and finished with just nine points.
“It was just a difficult night offensively and defensively for our team,” said Lillard. “But it is a long season, as we always say, and we cannot allow the loss of a game to make us lose two or three.”
WHAT DOES IT MEAN
It’s too early to freak out completely. The players on this list performed much better than that during their careers, and it’s a long season. Still, Portland has a lot of work to do and a difficult trip awaits next week. This team must be better than last summer, when the Blazers were the subject of the NBA bubble.
It’s over when …
Almost at break. The Blazers started well, with a 17-11 lead in the first quarter. Then Jazz just took off. A 17-3 run gave Utah a 28-20 lead with 2:11 remaining in the quarter. Bojan Bogdanovic, Joe Ingles and Donovan Mitchell hit three during the race. Jordan Clarkson did two.
It only got worse from there. Utah led with 32-25 in the second quarter and at the 4:55 mark it led with 54-35.
Portland made a 5-0 mini run to draw 54-40. But that only apparently angered Jazz, who responded with an 11-2 run to open the game at 65-42. The score was 65-44 at the interval.
Portland hit 35.6% in the first half, while Utah hit 48.1% in the three-point range.
Portland never threatened to make the game interesting in the second half.
Utah led 94-68 at the end of the third quarter.
PRESENTED AND SHOWN
Portland guard CJ McCollum was the only starter who had a decent night. He led the Blazers with 23 points from 7 out of 19 shots. Center Enes Kanter came off the bench to score 14 points and eight rebounds in 26 minutes. He made all seven attempts at his goal.
Utah ended with seven players in double digits. Center Rudy Gobert had 20 points and 17 rebounds, making 8 of 10 attempts to shoot. Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell also scored 20 points.
Utah finished 19 out of 50 (38%) in three-point attempts after it cooled a little in the second half.
SHOWN AND FIZZLED
Lillard hit just 4 out of 12 shots, including 1 out of 7 in the three-point streak. Utah made a concerted effort to get the ball out of his hands, often sending two defenders towards him.
“They didn’t do anything we hadn’t seen,” said Blazers coach Terry Stotts. “But we need Dame to be aggressive and, when the ball comes out, we have to have guys ready to do kicks and kicks. And to some extent, we don’t end up around the basket as well as we need to. “
In addition to Kanter, the bank’s other key players – Carmelo Anthony, Rodney Hood and Gary Trent Jr. – combined to make just 9 of 27 shots. Anthony scored 15 and Trent had 11. But his points were mostly equivalent to empty calories.
NEXT BLAZER CALENDAR
Portland is scheduled to host Houston on Saturday night. However, the Rockets’ game on Wednesday was postponed because of the precautions of COVID-19. Several players tested positive, returned with inconclusive tests or were identified by contract with those with positive tests.
Next week, the Blazers will begin a four-game trip at the Los Angeles Lakers, the Los Angeles Clippers and two games at the Golden State.
– Aaron Fentress | [email protected] | @AaronJFentress (Twitter), @AaronJFentress (Instagram), @AaronFentress (Facebook).
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