Utah Jazz at Portland Trail Blazers: Keys to the Game

The Utah Jazz’s pursuit of the fourth seed in the West continues tonight with a tough road contest against the Portland Trail Blazers.

If it seems like we just did this, you wouldn’t be mistaken. After having played one another a mere four days ago, the Utah Jazz and Portland Trail Blazers are back at it again. However, this time the roles will switch somewhat as the game will be held on Portland’s home court instead of in Salt Lake City and the Jazz are the ones coming in on the second night of a back-to-back instead of the Blazers.

And this second night may be a little tougher for the Jazz than usual due to a handful of factors. First of all, Utah’s win last night over the Minnesota Timberwolves was extremely hard fought and took nearly all of 48 minutes to determine the final outcome. While it would have been nice to give some of the starters some extra rest last night, their efforts were required to seal the victory.

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Also, the Trail Blazers are notoriously good at home in front of a rambunctious Moda Center crowd. Utah lost the game there earlier in the season and is just 2-7 in Portland over the last five seasons. Portland also has plenty at stake in the contest tonight as they hold just a narrow one-game lead over the Denver Nuggets for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

Finally, according to a tweet last night from David Locke, as if hopping on a late flight to Portland immediately following a game doesn’t make for a brutal trip as it is, it appears that the Jazz were delayed getting out of Salt Lake City and thus fatigue will be an even greater risk than usual.

Therefore, given that the Jazz will be fighting desperately for home court advantage in the playoffs while the Blazers will be fighting for their playoff lives, this is bound to be a hotly contested game with a definite playoff atmosphere. And there’s no denying that it’s going to be a big one for the Jazz.

Whether or not the Clippers lose today to the Spurs will determine just how big, but even if LA loses, Utah needs this victory over Portland so they have some cushion in their final two games against San Antonio and Golden State.

The bright side of all this is that the Jazz have thoroughly handled Portland in each of the previous two match-ups and though the Blazers are much better at home, if Utah can put up a repeat performance of the past two contests and take care of business in the following key areas, they should be able to come away with the win.