He almost singlehandedly cut the lead all the way down to a tied game, and then gave the Jazz a two-point lead at 43-41 with five and change to go. Once Sexton went to the bench, Malik Beasley vowed to keep the bench scoring going, as he was locked and loaded for four treys in the quarter. Sexton looked like he had a picture of Damian Lillard on his wall and was throwing darts at it the night before, as once Dame came back in the game, he guarded him like Gary Payton, from 94 feet, with exaggerated tenacity. On the other end, Utah found success in the screen-and-roll, with Kessler and Jared Vanderbilt both getting wide open dunks in the dynamic offensive action. Simons saw that the party was jumping, and brought two triples to the event, catching fire. Nurkic invited himself to the 3-point party and hit one of his own from the top of the key - an area he’s been fancying throughout this season. Nasir Little caught a pass and loaded up for a picture-perfect 3 that sounded sweet to the ears when it went through the net. Shaedon Sharpe ended off the quarter for Rip City by keeping the defender on his hip on his trek to the rim, before exploding up for a runner off the glass.Īt the end of one, the score was 23-20 in favor of the Blazers. Walker Kessler took advantage of an antsy Eubanks hunting for blocks, by roaming around in the dunker spot and dialing in a couple of bunnies. Collin Sexton and Talen Horton-Tucker kept their foot on the gas, driving to the cup. For the Jazz, their bench came in and gave them a huge spark by quelling an 11-0 Blazers run midway through the quarter. Utah’s offense was rather stagnant, Drew Eubanks did his best Todd Rodgers impersonation by spiking two shots in close. Nurk was out there looking like Arvydas Sabonis with a two-dribble hook shot over the left shoulder on the block. On the other side of the ball, Portland recorded many deflections in the passing lanes, and when the pick-and-roll was deployed, they’d always show two men, with the defender of the screener giving a hard show, to stop the downhill attack from Clarkson and Mike Conley. And, they swung the ball around, having four blazers touch the rock before Jerami Grant drilled a wide open corner trey. They scored in the fast break on a feed from the Draymond Green-esque Hart to Jusuf Nurkic filling the lane. They scored off of cuts, a la Anfernee Simons. Portland was polished in diversifying their offensive playbook. The Finnish breakout star was aggressive early, scoring all nine of Utah’s points in the first seven minutes of the contest. This included tries from Markkanen and Kelly Olynyk, who were fortunate (or unfortunate depending on your allegiance) to miss. Utah brought into service a man defense, and so did Portland, but the former got many wide open attempts from 3. Jerami Grant kept the focus on the inside, with a grown man move in the post for the deuce after a Markkanen triple went down. The Blazers started with fundamental off-ball screens on the baseline, freeing up Lillard off of the curl, who fed Hart cutting for an easy layup. Open shots were abundant prior to the first timeout. In lieu of his struggles from the field, they missed his Dame Time capabilities down the stretch, and as a result, have now fallen to 10-6 on the season, good for third in the conference, while Utah has usurped Portland, and are sitting comfortably atop the west. They also played good man defense and were excellent at extinguishing runs that Portland made throughout the final three quarters.ĭamian Lillard was forced to exit the game in the third quarter with a nagging calf injury, and the Blazers showed poise and valiance in his stead. The Jazz were very successful in driving the basketball and scoring in close. They let Beasley and Markkanen combine for nine of their team’s 14 three-pointers. Utah had a top-heavy attack, spearheaded by early aggression from Lauri Markkanen, steady 3-point shooting from Malik Beasley that extended their lead, and late game buckets from Clarkson that provided the straw that broke the camel’s back.Ĭontesting the long ball - a critique all season for the Blazers - continued to be a plague for the former number one team in the west. Six Blazers scored in double figures, led by energy and heart from Josh Hart. As if a last-second loss on Thursday to the Brooklyn Nets wasn’t hurtful enough, the Portland Trail Blazers fell at the hands of fourth quarter heroics from Jordan Clarkson and the Utah Jazz on Saturday night, 118-113.
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