The Utah Jazz will aim to get back to their winning ways in a post-Christmas showdown on TNT against the Portland Trail Blazers.
As disappointing as it was to see the Utah Jazz take their first loss in six games last Monday night against the Miami Heat, there was actually a lot to be encouraged by in the bout. Aside from yet another frustrating offensive drought which came in the fourth quarter, Utah held their own for nearly the entire contest against a very good Heat team on the road.
Now, with the Jazz actively addressing their bench woes by trading Dante Exum for Jordan Clarkson and waiving the erratic Jeff Green to make room to sign Rayjon Tucker, hopefully we’ll start to little by little see improvements from a second unit that has been abysmal thus far. We’ll get our first shot to see how it works on Thursday as the Jazz host the Portland Trail Blazers in a post-Christmas battle on TNT.
As of this writing, Tucker is available to play whereas Clarkson’s status is still up in the air as physicals for both he and Exum remain pending and the league has yet to officially recognize the trade. Due to the odd circumstances, as noted by The Athletic’s Tony Jones on Twitter, there’s a chance we may very well see the likes of Jarrell Brantley and Miye Oni log rotation minutes in tonight’s bout.
Both have had encouraging flashes, so it would be fun to see them in action. Regardless of who hits the court for the Jazz, though, they’ll be in for a challenge against a formidable Portland Trail Blazers team, albeit one that has struggled this year.
The Blazers are off to a sluggish 14-17 start, but that just so happens to be good for eighth place in the West at the moment. Portland has dealt with an array of injuries including to the likes of Jusuf Nurkic, Zach Collins and Rodney Hood, who was off to a great start but will now miss the entire season with an Achilles tear.
In their desperation, they added Carmelo Anthony to the mix, who has found a bit of redemption in the City of Roses. He’s averaging 16.4 points per game while knocking down over 40 percent of his triples. Last time the Jazz faced off against Melo in meaningful play was the 2018 playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder wherein they rendered him practically useless. Ideally, they’ll be able to do the same in this upcoming matchup.
Regardless of what they’re able to do with Melo, the Blazers, of course, will always pose a threat due to the abilities of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, who have both long given the Jazz significant trouble. Although both have had some shooting struggles of late, there’s no denying their unquestionable scoring prowess, and both are capable of going off at any time as they’ve done to the Jazz on several occasions.
Lillard is averaging 26.6 points this season while McCollum is at 22.4. If the Jazz are unable to find some perimeter defense and lock in on Portland’s tremendous backcourt duo, they could very well be on their way to another losing streak. The likes of Donovan Mitchell, Royce O’Neale and Joe Ingles will need to be superb on defense to hold them in check.
Game Data
Broadcast Info
Tip-off: 8:30 PM MT on December 26 from Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City, UT
TV: TNT
Radio: The Zone Sports Network (97.5 FM & 1280 AM Salt Lake City)
Projected Starting Lineups
| Utah Jazz | Position | Golden State Warriors |
| Rudy Gobert | C | Hassan Whiteside |
| Royce O’Neale | PF | Carmelo Anthony |
| Bojan Bogdanovic | SF | Kent Bazemore |
| Joe Ingles | SG | CJ McCollum |
| Donovan Mitchell | PG | Damian Lillard |
Injuries
Mike Conley still won’t be in action for the Jazz as he continues to deal with a hamstring injury. He has historically matched up quite well against Damian Lillard, so his absence is sure to be felt mightily.
Meanwhile, as mentioned previously, the Blazers are without Zach Collins who has a severe shoulder injury, Jusuf Nurkic, who is still recovering from the broken leg he suffered last season, and Rodney Hood who is out for the year.
Prediction
If the Jazz play like they did against Miami, minus the drought and with taking advantage of what should be an amped-up home crowd, this contest could very well result in a win. The Blazers have had their issues, Rudy Gobert should be able to dominate Hassan Whiteside, and hopefully this game will be a large confidence booster for Utah’s bench.
That said, the first game home from a road trip is always a bit iffy, so we’ll see which version of this Jazz team shows up. Fortunately, they’ve been off since Monday with the Christmas holiday, so hopefully they’ll be refreshed and ready to go.
The Action Network is pinning the Jazz as six-point favorites, which feels reasonable to me. I’ll go with Jazz 112, Blazers 106.
Discussion
#PORatUTA is the Twitter hashtag for the game and our live comment thread below will be up and rolling throughout the game as well. Go Jazz!