Trail Blazers lose to Jazz 112-91 in last home game of season
A quick scan of the Portland bench and you knew the result of this game: LaMarcus Aldridge, Raymond Felton, Jamal Crawford all decked in suits while Joel Przybilla was home with a severe case of Bronchitis and Nolan Smith and Hasheem Thabeet in the starting lineup. With a second of three meetings with the Utah Jazz (33-30) this month, the Jazz are in a dogfight with Houston, Denver and Phoenix for the final seedings for the playoffs, each team separated by at least 1.5 games. They treated this game as much as a must-win and on Fan Appreciation night, the Blazers (28-35) played their final home game before embarking on a three-game road trip to finally put an end to the 2011-12 season. Utah started the first quarter going up as much as 11 and never looked back. The Jazz took a commanding 57-39 halftime lead as the Blazers bench players went cold and never recovered.
The Blazers were led in scoring by Wesley Matthews with 21 Pts, 4 Reb, 2 Ast, 2 Stl and started to look like another hot night from downtown as he made his first three in a row then finished just 3-7 for the night. Nolan Smith, J.J. Hickson and Luke Babbitt each contributed 16 Pts, Smith with 3 Reb, 0 Ast and 3 turnovers; Hickson had a quiet night for 9 Reb, 3 Ast and 2 Blk; Babbitt along with 5 Reb and 2 Stl.
Portland also saw some meaningful minutes from Craig Smith and Kurt Thomas but both didn’t do much of anything. The Blazers shot a horrific 39% throughout much of the game, 6-20 from three and watched someone named Devin Harris go berserk and score 27 points when he only averages 11 a game. The Jazz out rebound (49-39), out assist (23-18), steal (9-7) and force Portland to commit 17 turnovers. Both scored 40 points in the paint but blasted the Blazers 22-12 on the fast break.
Nicolas Batum also started but eventually succumbed to his sore knee and sat out the rest of the second half, scoring just two points, 2 Reb, 3 Ast and 2 Stl for the night. I doubt we’ll see Batum for the rest of the season as Portland head into Memphis.
Nicholas Filipas