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Utah Jazz vs. Portland Trail Blazers: Keys to the Game

By Jared Woodcox

Oct 25, 2016; Portland, OR, USA; Utah Jazz forward Joe Johnson (6) shoots over Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard (0) in the second half at Moda Center at the Rose Quarter. Mandatory Credit: Jaime Valdez-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 25, 2016; Portland, OR, USA; Utah Jazz forward Joe Johnson (6) shoots over Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard (0) in the second half at Moda Center at the Rose Quarter. Mandatory Credit: Jaime Valdez-USA TODAY Sports /
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Oct 25, 2016; Portland, OR, USA; Utah Jazz guard George Hill (3) drives around Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard (0) in the first half at Moda Center at the Rose Quarter. Mandatory Credit: Jaime Valdez-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 25, 2016; Portland, OR, USA; Utah Jazz guard George Hill (3) drives around Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard (0) in the first half at Moda Center at the Rose Quarter. Mandatory Credit: Jaime Valdez-USA TODAY Sports /

Prediction – Jazz 105, Trail Blazers 103

I’ll be honest, my confidence in the Jazz was pretty starkly shaken after Monday’s loss to the Clippers. The Jazz looked slow, sloppy and unfocused as they struggled to put together any kind of semblance of an efficient offense.

Nevertheless, as I pointed out earlier today, the Jazz have seemingly played their best basketball and gotten things turned around immediately after losing streaks or tough stretches this season. Therefore, with a good but not great opponent in the Portland Trail Blazers coming to town, I’m going to stick with my prediction from earlier in the week and pin the Jazz as narrow winners in a hotly contested battle.

Gobert’s advantage in the paint coupled with the likely struggles Portland will have against Gordon Hayward who did not play in these two teams’ first meeting due to injury should help propel Utah to a victory over a Blazer team that is poor defensively.

If such turns out to be the case, it will provide a much-needed lift for the Jazz to prevent them from limping into the All-Star break. Given Utah’s recent struggles, there’s no questioning that the break is coming at the ideal time for them, but it would still be reassuring to notch this one confidence-boosting victory before entering the 10-day respite.

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While it might seem a bit over the top to put so much emphasis on one regular season game, I truly view this as a critical contest for the Jazz to get back on the right track for the rest of the season in a game that they can and should win.

All stats courtesy of NBA.com.

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