11/1 Utah Jazz vs. Portland Trail Blazers: Keys to the game
By John Keeffer
![SALT LAKE CITY, UT - OCTOBER 30: Rodney Hood #5 and Ricky Rubio #3 of the Utah Jazz talk during a second half time out during their 104-89 win over the Dallas Mavericks at Vivint Smart Home Arena on October 30, 2017 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by Gene Sweeney Jr./Getty Images) SALT LAKE CITY, UT - OCTOBER 30: Rodney Hood #5 and Ricky Rubio #3 of the Utah Jazz talk during a second half time out during their 104-89 win over the Dallas Mavericks at Vivint Smart Home Arena on October 30, 2017 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by Gene Sweeney Jr./Getty Images)](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape/cover/sport/757a6c66eb770efe79a565d5c0f872f62bd3267343a0ee931b56c906d7b36ef8.jpg)
Limit Portland’s second chance opportunities
Portland has been a dominant offensive rebounding team to start the season, and the Jazz will need to limit the Blazers second chance opportunities. For a team like Utah, who currently uses the lowest amount of possessions per game, they can’t be giving their opponents additional scoring opportunities.
That is the same reason why turnovers have been killing them.
The Blazers have been averaging 13 offensive rebounds per game, which is good for second-best in the NBA. According to cleaningtheglass.com, they are rebounding 33 percent of their own missed field goal attempts, the top percentage in the league.
Ed Davis is the spark plug off the bench, as he is grabbing 19.5 percent of his teams available misses. He is averaging four offensive rebounds a game, but he is doing that in only 19 minutes a game.
The Blazers are sixth in the NBA with 87.7 field goal attempts a game, while the Jazz are last with only 78.6 per game. If they can limit the Blazers offensive rebounding, while perhaps grabbing a few more of their own, they should have a much better chance of keeping up with the fourth-best offense in the NBA.