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The Portland Trail Blazers are pretty much locked into the #4 seed in the Western conference. They can't catch any of the teams ahead of them, nor can they be displaced from the #4 seed due to the virtue of winning the North West division. They have sustained a few injuries, severe and nagging both, and it's more important to them to get healthy (or retain whatever health they have) than to chase wins. Already without the services of Wesley Matthews and Dorell Wright, LaMarcus Aldridge, Arron Afflalo, and Chris Kaman (only 4 minutes) got a chance to heal up. (Still, Terry Stotts gave Alonzo Gee and Tim Frazier DNP-CDs.) Quin Snyder, knowing that wins are nice, but knowing that Dennis Lindsey wants to maximize his draft flexibility, sat Gordon Hayward and Derrick Favors -- who joined Alec Burks and Trey Burke as guys who didn't play last night for Utah. (Also known as 4/5 of last season's starting lineup.)
So two teams who weren't 100% "in it to win it" faced off last night. And who won? The Utah Jazz won, on the road in the Moda center, a very rare thing. How did they do it? A huge first quarter (32-19) kept Portland on their heels all night long, and even though the Blazers would tie the game, and lead going into the 4ht quarter, they didn't have enough juice left to finish the game. In the last frame the Jazz went on 13-0 and 7-0 runs to keep the Blazers just out of striking distance. Man, that 13-0 run happened with Bryce Cotton, Elijah Millsap, Chris Johnson, Jeremy Evans, and Jack Cooley on the floor. (And that happened against Steve Blake, C.J. McCollum, Allen Crabbe, Nicolas Batum (stretch 4 vs. Evans), and Robin Lopez.)
Having just finished the game I have to say I was impressed by the fight put up by both teams, and intrigued by the number of non-traditional line-ups used. Damian Lillard and C.J. MucCollum both had fantastic nights, and Robin Lopez scored 20+ points, how rare is that? Ultimately, though, Utah's depth prevailed as they got more out of less -- with a few stand out performances that deserve recognition, of course.
Rodney Hood continues to be amazing, and is a true point forward in my mind, his 21 and 8 assists were huge tonight.
Rudy Gobert is always a lot to handle, and his ability to collect offensive rebounds and correct defensive mistakes were vital.
Jeremy Evans, Elijah Millsap, Chris Johnson, and Bryce Cotton were a great bench mob. It's almost if this is a group that practices together as they are somewhat all 3rd stringers.
But you can't talk about this game without talking about Joe Ingles, er, I mean, Trevor Booker. Booker had a career high, went 4/4 from downtown, hustled all night long -- and in a game where most will talk about who didn't play, we really have to recognize the game he had. The best way to put it would be: if Paul Allen didn't own the Blazers, and Larry H. Miller did, Miller would have been so impressed with this game that he would tell the GM to go get Booker asap. (N.B. This happened a few times over the years, most notably in the cases of John Amaechi and Carlos Boozer -- both who had huge games against the Jazz before joining the team.)
Top 5 Performances:
| Player | Tm | Min | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | BARPS | /min | |||
| 1 | Trevor Booker | UTA | 36 | 36 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 49 | 1.36 | ||
| 2 | Damian Lillard | POR | 37 | 28 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 40 | 1.08 | ||
| 3 | C.J. McCollum | POR | 40 | 26 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 40 | 1.00 | ||
| 4 | Rodney Hood | UTA | 31 | 21 | 2 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 32 | 1.03 | ||
| 5 | Robin Lopez | POR | 32 | 21 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 29 | 0.91 |
The Rest of the guys who played:
| Player | Tm | Min | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | BARPS | /min | |||
| 6 | Rudy Gobert | UTA | 35 | 6 | 11 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 22 | 0.63 | ||
| 7 | Nicolas Batum | POR | 38 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 20 | 0.53 | ||
| 8 | Jeremy Evans | UTA | 15 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 19 | 1.27 | ||
| 9 | Elijah Millsap | UTA | 23 | 11 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 19 | 0.83 | ||
| 10 | Meyers Leonard | POR | 25 | 12 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 18 | 0.72 | ||
| 11 | Chris Johnson | UTA | 25 | 11 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 0.72 | ||
| 12 | Bryce Cotton | UTA | 25 | 11 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 18 | 0.72 | ||
| 13 | Allen Crabbe | POR | 29 | 11 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 16 | 0.55 | ||
| 14 | Joel Freeland | POR | 14 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 0.71 | ||
| 15 | Dante Exum | UTA | 23 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 0.35 | ||
| 16 | Steve Blake | POR | 20 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 0.30 | ||
| 17 | Jack Cooley | UTA | 8 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0.63 | ||
| 18 | Joe Ingles | UTA | 18 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.11 | ||
| 19 | Chris Kaman | POR | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
A list of guys who didn't (injury, not with team, or DNP-CD):
LaMarcus Aldridge, Gordon Hayward, Derrick Favors, Wesley Matthews, Alec Burks, Trey Burke, Arron Afflalo, Dorell Wright, ALonzo Gee, Tim Frazier, Grant Jerrett.
And a special shout out to these undercover Jazz fans / secret agents who infiltrated the game!
@slcdunk we're ready. pic.twitter.com/s1k6GMqJJ7
— The Brothers Jazz (@thebrothersjazz) April 12, 2015
Also, I totally didn't jinx Joe Ingles. He's just trying to stick with DL's program and try to lose!