Utah Jazz at Portland Trail Blazers: Can Jazz extend perfect preseason on the road?

The Utah Jazz will aim to remain perfect in 2018-19 preseason play as they head out on the road to take on the Portland Trail Blazers.

The Utah Jazz have gotten off to a commendable start in NBA Preseason play as they find themselves with a solid 3-0 record. Of course, two of those wins have come against Australian squads, meaning the level of competition has been less than formidable, but there have still been a lot of positive takeaways from what the Jazz have shown us thus far.

For a further look into some of those, be sure to check out the latest from my J-Notes colleague John Keeffer via the link in the tweet below–

On the flip side, the Jazz have also had a few issues in their trio of games thus far as well. They had an ugly second quarter against the Toronto Raptors, that was only salvaged by Joe Ingles‘ hot hand and the fact that Toronto’s stars sat out in the second half. They got off to a horrible start against Adelaide that had the team appearing frustrated and out of sync.

Not only that, but several players, including rising star Donovan Mitchell, have struggled to find their shot. Utah’s offense has been one of the questions marks that have faced the team in recent years, and though they’re putting up a lot of points, they’ll need to see more consistent efficiency especially as the regular season draws near.

The Jazz have now wrapped up their home preseason slate and have two auditions remaining on the road. The first of those takes place Sunday evening in the Moda Center against the Portland Trail Blazers.

The Blazers have looked decent in preseason so far, narrowly losing to the Toronto Raptors then creaming the Phoenix Suns in a game which former Jazz assistant coach Igor Kokoskov expressed concern in the lack of effort from his Phoenix squad. Portland stars Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum have played very limited minutes thus far, just 16.5 minutes per game apiece, but others have stepped up and impressed for Portland.

Meyers Leonard and Seth Curry have both been efficient and effective in the minutes they’ve played, as have Zach Collins, who currently leads the Blazers in minutes played in the preseason, and Al-Farouq Aminu. Though the Blazers boast a star-studded backcourt, the strength of the team really comes from their chemistry and power of their reserve unit as they seek to ensure their whole is greater than the sum of their parts.

They’ve done a great job in years past of using a multi-front attack with several players across their roster stepping up to aid Lillard and McCollum, and it would appear thus far that such will be their approach this time around as well.

One player who’s been a bit concerning has been the one the Blazers hoped could be the third piece of a potential big three – Jusuf Nurkic. Though he’s leading his Portland team in points per game in preseason, he’s shooting just 36.8 percent from the field.

Nurkic was spectacular during the season he was first traded to Portland and it looked like he’d be a revolutionary fit. But then he had his ups and downs last year, and in order to be a force in the West, the Blazers will have to hope he can find some consistency in 2018-19.

In terms of how the contest will look between the Jazz and Blazers on Sunday evening, it’s somewhat hard to tell. There’s no telling who will play what minutes or which players either team will be rolling out as preseason is drawing to a close.

Assuming both teams play their starters a similar amount, though, the Jazz will need their star players, Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, to step up so they can keep Lillard, McCollum and Nurkic at bay. Though Nurkic hasn’t been that efficient, he’s still provided a challenging matchup for Gobert in the past, and that will likely continue to be the case in this bout.

Defensively, the Jazz will have their work cut out stopping Portland’s backcourt, but hopefully they’ll in turn be able to thrive against a defense that hasn’t been renowned in recent seasons.

To be honest, I’m not as concerned with who wins or loses in this contest as I am with simply seeing Utah show some encouraging signs of growth and improvement from their past two performances. They need to get off to a better start, those who have struggled with efficiency need to find their shot, the turnovers have to come down and hopefully we’ll see the Jazz bring an intense energy out on the road.

Donovan Mitchell is shooting a reasonable 41.7 percent from the field, but just 28.6 from deep, an atrocious mark. That’s an area where Jazz fans hoped he’d show improvement, so hopefully that will start to shine through in this upcoming bout.

Meanwhile, both Jae Crowder and Thabo Sefolosha, two guys that we figured would do battle with one another as the first power forward off the bench and leading stretch-four, have both been horribly inefficient thus far. They’ll both need to clean things up before Utah will feel confident with either one playing major minutes in a backup role.

Ricky Rubio has shot the 3-ball well, but has only gone 36 percent from the field. Meanwhile, Joe Ingles’ 3-point shooting mark of 35.7 percent isn’t awful by any means, but is well below his standard. Last of all, Utah’s 19.3 turnovers per game is a terrible mark, even for preseason and especially against the mainly lackluster talent they’ve faced. That rate of giveaways has them in the bottom third in the league.

I know that it’s just preseason and so it’s no time to overreact. Plus, regardless of some sloppiness, the Jazz are winning games, which at the end of the day is the most important aspect. Hopefully they’re able to do so once again versus Portland, but more than anything, as long as we see marked improvement in these areas, that will be the most crucial thing. Not to mention, if that improvement does take place, Utah’s odds of winning will skyrocket.

Last week when previewing the Jazz’s preseason slate, I had them pinned as losing their first road preseason contest. Whether they do so or not depends largely on which players from either team play and what kind of effort we see from both sides. For sake of consistency, though, I’m going to stick with my same prediction and pin the Jazz to fall just short, losing to Portland by a score of 98-92.

Prediction: Portland 98, Utah 92

Utah’s first road preseason contest tips off at 7:00 PM MT in Portland and will be nationally televised on NBA TV.