![]() That leaves Utah without their most lethal offensive threat while opposing offenses get to do absolute damage to a lineup that as we just discussed gets outscored and takes on heavy water. That means Quin is trying to do everything he can to stop the bleeding and that means Donovan Mitchell is staying out there with the bench long into the beginning of the third quarter and then his rest coming when most opposing team’s starters are returning for the final stretch run of the 4th. Every other lineup was outscored by a collective 25 points. When the starting lineup is on the court, the Jazz outscored Portland by 8 points. Without Rudy Gobert out there, the bench starts taking on water fast. As Mike Conley moved to the starting lineup, Royce O’Neale got to have his turn on the Jazz themed Titanic bench. The biggest issue? Quin is using Donovan as a life preserver for a REALLY struggling bench. With injuries, trades, and releases, Quin Snyder has had to create substitution pattern that more resembles a patchwork quilt than an assembly line. Rational Reaction #1: Quin Snyder has a rotation problem on his hands The even bigger problem is it’s trending in the wrong direction. Over the past two weeks their defensive rating is checking in at 113.2, good for 16th in the league. Their defense meanwhile has the Check Engine light flashing. But the Jazz’s offense is not the problem with the Jazz. He had 22 points on 9 of 20 shooting and was 4 of 6 from the three point line. Mike Conley looked good in his return to the starting lineup. Utah never was close to striking distance for most of the second half. Dame had checked the time and it read DAME. Utah and Portland battled it out for much of the second with five lead changes, but then Portland put their foot on the accelerator. Then Portland cut Utah’s 11 point lead down to 1 by the end of the 1st quarter. The Jazz defense even appeared to put the clamps down on Portland. Mike Conley looked like he was fired out of a gun and scored 8 points really quick on 4 of 5 shooting with 4 minutes left in the 1st quarter. The beginning of this game, it appears Utah had finally got its act together. It’s a trainwreck, but the game didn’t start out that way. If you bring that down to 36 points, Dame is the third to score 36 or more against Utah in the last four games. Dame became the second player in four games to score 50 or more against Utah. Manhattan five games ago has now scored 36 or more points in 6 straight games and scored 50 or more in three of them. The role of guard scoring 50 or more tonight was played by Damian Lillard who scored 51 points on 17 of 29 shooting while dishing out 12 assists. The Blazers face the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday night at 5:00 PM, Pacific Time.The Utah Jazz dropped their fourth loss in a row as they watched Portland easily slip into the paint or hit anything they wanted behind the three point line. Have fun, and enjoy the observations in the comments! Up Next If you’re experienced here, this will be a welcome contrast from the usual mostly-excellent analysis, a chance to see things a little differently. If you’re new to the site, have fun meeting our readers. The quarter by quarter recap tells us what happened. All of you who watched the action, give us an idea of the key players, developments, moments, and trends that typified the game. Tonight, the Blazers-Jazz contest is going to wrap up with a build-your-own analysis post. Below this post, you’ll find our comment section. However, Blazer’s Edge has an incredible reader base, most of whom will have watched this game from start to finish. This game was on NBA TV, which should have qualified, but nope! So we don’t have detailed analysis or observations from the game directly. Site Manager Dave Deckard resides within the Utah Jazz blackout zone, but has never had a problem seeing nationally-televised games before. Unfortunately, Blazer’s Edge fell victim to the league’s blackout rules. If you missed the action or want to hear what happened in detail, you can check out our quarter by quarter recap here. Anfernee Simons led the Blazers with 23 in the loss, while guard Malik Beasley poured in 29 for Utah, followed closely by guard Jordan Clarkson with 28. The Blazers lost Damian Lillard to a re-aggravated calf injury along the way. The Portland Trail Blazers fell to the Utah Jazz 118-113 on Saturday night, inverting the top teams in the Western Conference.
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