Jazz get royal screw job, Trail Blazers benefit, sneak out of Utah with a 92-89 "victory"

Okay, the Utah Jazz "gave up" a solid lead going into the fourth and lost to the NBA Referees and the Portland Trail Blazers helped. I'm upset about this game because Utah should have won it, even without Gordon Hayward, Alec Burks, or Rodney Hood. Yes, Portland was without Chris Kaman, Nicolas Batum, and Wesley Matthews -- so it's kinda even there. What wasn't even were the refs decisions. Countless times a ball would go off of a Blazer, and it would be called off the Jazz. Other times a Jazz player would be fouled, with no call in sight. And especially in the fourth quarter Damian Lillard was getting sent to the line for fouls real and/or imagined.

You could tell that the refs were aligned with the Blazers tonight, neither of them were going to tolerate a 6th loss in a row for a team with two All-Stars. Pathetic.

The Jazz sucked it up, play defense, and made this a game. Once again, though, had the team actually shot a little better from the line we wouldn't even be talking about this 92-89 loss. The Jazz went 15/23 from the stripe, Elijah Millsap went 0/4, Rudy Gobert went 2/4 (hard to expect more with so few attempts), and even Joe Ingles missed one when he should have made it. You can't blame free throws alone . . . I blame the refs.

I really do.

It mars the great games by Derrick Favors (26 pts, 13 reb, 1 stl, 1 blk, 8-9 from the FT line), Rudy Gobert (12 pts, 10 reb, solid defense and some highlight plays), and Trey Burke (22 pts, nearly 50% shooting, 4 reb, 3 ast, 2 stl, 1 to). Joe Ingles and Elijah Millsap were great on defense, hustling, rotating, and deflecting the ball all night long and combined for 19 pts, 12 reb, 4 ast, and 6 stl. Trevor Booker was fired up, and even Ian Clark made a three.

Rudy Gobert with another dunk and salute https://t.co/KJhZNAYWer

— Jeremiah Jensen (@JJSportsBeat) March 26, 2015

Jazz should have won this game. They play Portland again once more this season, on the second night of a back to back, and the third game in four nights next month. If we're going to get jobbed again, at least play as the villain. Knock some heads. The refs think that's what we do anyway.