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The Utah Jazz and the Portland Trail Blazers do have a history against one another. If you add it all up, the Blazers are up on the Jazz 97-80 overall in the regular season. They are a very impressive 61-28 in their gym. And in the NBA Playoffs, Portland is up on Utah again 19-12, with a 4-2 record in overall series wins. You could say that if there’s one team out there that has had Utah’s goat over the years (that’s not the Los Angeles Lakers) it’s been the Blazers. In terms of being annoyed by, frustrated by the outcomes of some playoff games, and overall infuriated by — what the Utah Jazz are to the Houston Rockets, the Portland Trail Blazers are to the Utah Jazz.
And a big part of that has been their guard play. Utah’s been torched by so many of their guards I had to look at the data myself. And even I had to stop counting after a while — but the list goes on an on. So sorry in advance to Isaiah Rider, Rod Strickland, Ron Brewer (yes, Ronnie Brewer’s dad) and others who did not make the cut. (Data courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com)
Blazers Guard | MIN | PTS | FGA | REB | AST | STL | BLK | PPS | BARPS | ||||
1 | Clyde Drexler | 44 | 42 | 26 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1.62 | 56 | |||
2 | Terry Porter | 38 | 41 | 14 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 2.93 | 57 | |||
3 | Clyde Drexler | 43 | 36 | 23 | 6 | 12 | 3 | 0 | 1.57 | 57 | |||
4 | Jim Paxon | 35 | 21 | 1.67 | |||||||||
5 | Clyde Drexler | 44 | 35 | 21 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 1.67 | 49 | |||
6 | Damian Lillard | 40 | 35 | 27 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1.30 | 43 | |||
7 | Terry Porter | 42 | 34 | 16 | 5 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 2.13 | 46 | |||
8 | Jim Paxon | 36 | 33 | 19 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1.74 | 38 | |||
9 | Clyde Drexler | 29 | 33 | 16 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2.06 | 37 | |||
10 | Brandon Roy | 43 | 33 | 22 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1.50 | 42 | |||
Blazers Guard | MIN | PTS | FGA | REB | AST | STL | BLK | PPS | BARPS | ||||
11 | Wesley Matthews | 40 | 33 | 12 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2.75 | 39 | |||
12 | Jim Paxon | 32 | 20 | 1.60 | |||||||||
13 | Damon Stoudamire | 43 | 32 | 18 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1.78 | 41 | |||
14 | C.J. McCollum | 40 | 32 | 26 | 7 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1.23 | 45 | |||
15 | Clyde Drexler | 41 | 31 | 20 | 11 | 9 | 6 | 0 | 1.55 | 57 | |||
16 | Clyde Drexler | 35 | 31 | 22 | 12 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1.41 | 49 | |||
17 | C.J. McCollum | 37 | 31 | 21 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1.48 | 37 | |||
18 | Rod Strickland | 38 | 30 | 18 | 7 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 1.67 | 48 | |||
19 | Kenny Anderson | 44 | 30 | 16 | 2 | 12 | 2 | 0 | 1.88 | 46 | |||
20 | Brandon Roy | 35 | 30 | 19 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1.58 | 38 | |||
Blazers Guard | MIN | PTS | FGA | REB | AST | STL | BLK | PPS | BARPS | ||||
21 | Wesley Matthews | 39 | 30 | 16 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1.88 | 40 | |||
22 | Damian Lillard | 37 | 30 | 21 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1.43 | 39 | |||
23 | Kevin Ransey | 29 | |||||||||||
24 | Billy Ray Bates | 29 | |||||||||||
25 | Clyde Drexler | 42 | 29 | 19 | 12 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 1.53 | 54 | |||
26 | Brandon Roy | 34 | 29 | 15 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1.93 | 41 | |||
27 | Brandon Roy | 36 | 29 | 21 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1.38 | 38 | |||
28 | Lionel Hollins | 28 | 28 | ||||||||||
29 | Terry Porter | 36 | 28 | 16 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1.75 | 36 | |||
30 | Clyde Drexler | 38 | 28 | 15 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1.87 | 44 |
N.B. Yes, some of this goes back to the New Orleans Jazz days, and as a consequence, the box scores are incomplete. PPS = Points per Shot. (So Points / FGA) BARPS is the sum total of Blocks + Assists + Rebounds + Points + Steals. You know -- the five things we look at outside of minutes and fouls.
Over the time we’ve seen changes in more and more players taking three pointers, but the common denominator here seems to be players having good shooting games. The league average for PPS is 1.22 (over the last four decades); but over the smaller sample size of the last 15 it has shrunk to 1.21. Only ONE of these times have we seen a Blazers player shoot “close” to average — C.J. McCollum ‘s 32 last season where he scored those points off of 26 shots (1.23 PPS).
As a fan from the Frank Layden days, I am still shell shocked by what Terry Porter and Clyde Drexler did to our guys in the NBA Playoffs in the 90s. The aftershock happened last season with Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum having big games as well.
Hopefully we don’t see one tonight. After all, it’s just the preseason! Give us a break!