The Utah Jazz weren’t going to win every remaining game this season, so Friday night’s 100-81 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers shouldn’t come as a huge surprise on some levels.
At the same time, the manner in which Utah’s 11-game winning streak ended had to be disappointing to the sellout crowd at Vivint Smart Home Arena.
Utah’s longest win streak since 2009 didn’t just end, it came to a screeching halt. The Blazers didn’t just beat the Jazz, they dominated from the first possession. And maybe most concerning, the Jazz didn’t look like the team that just had won 11 straight. They looked like the team that limped through December and January.
“We didn’t play with enough force tonight,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. “They were efficient offensively, and they scored early, and I don’t think it set a good tone for us. Over the course of the game, turning the ball over as much as we did makes it really difficult. It started there.”
On paper, the Jazz were reasonably good defensively against the Trail Blazers. They limited Portland to 47 points in the second half and 44 percent shooting from the field. The Trail Blazers shot just 9 of 24 from 3-point range, so they hardly turned in a vintage offensive performance.
But Portland hit dagger shots throughout the course of the game. CJ McCollum scored 26 points and former Weber State star Damian Lillard scored 24 points. Whenever the Jazz made a run, one of the two would come up with a timely shot. And if it wasn’t a made basket, Lillard was great at getting to the free-throw line.
As a result, the Jazz weren’t competitive on the scoreboard Friday night. The Trail Blazers led by as many as 19 points, while Utah never led. Portland looked in sync, while the Jazz looked like they still were enjoying the All-Star break.
“We came back rusty,” Utah forward Derrick Favors said. “Not practicing and not being around the team to sharpen things up, you’re going to come back kind of rusty, so that’s what happened tonight. Luckily we got that out of the way.”
It may have been more than being rusty. The Jazz entered Friday night up 2-0 on Portland in the season series. A Utah win would have given the Jazz the tiebreaker between the teams, important for the playoff run down the stretch.
The Trail Blazers played a desperate game in response. They defended with playoff intensity. They took control on the first possession with a 3-pointer from Al-Farouq Aminu. And they never relinquished a hold on the game.
The Jazz never matched that energy. Rookie guard Donovan Mitchell scored a team-high 21 points, but 14 came in the first half. Rudy Gobert scored 15 points, grabbed nine rebounds and blocked four shots. But Portland didn’t allow him to dominate the paint. Joe Ingles scored 12 points and Jae Crowder added 11 points, but neither made his normal impact.
And the Jazz couldn’t make shots. They hit just six of their 25 attempts from 3-point range. They shot 42 percent overall, and they turned over the ball 19 times.
“We tried some different things, but it really didn’t come together,” Ingles said. “They made a couple of big runs and a couple of big shots, and we’d have a turnover. It wasn’t our night.”
The results around the Jazz took their bad luck a step further. The Denver Nuggets, New Orleans Pelicans and Los Angeles Clippers all won Friday night. That means Utah falls two and a half games behind the eighth and final playoff spot, and a game and a half behind the ninth place Clippers.
A short turnaround to Saturday’s matchup against the Dallas Mavericks offers a respite of sorts for the Jazz. It means they won’t have much time to stew over their worst game in weeks.
“We wanted to win this one tonight, but we weren’t able to get it done,” Utah forward Jonas Jerebko said. “Now we have to come out tomorrow, play hard and try to start another streak.
