The Portland Trail Blazers won a bad game of basketball at home again the Utah Jazz on Friday, 124-114 . A win is a win, but the Blazers shouldn’t pat themselves on the back for this one. Both teams were objectively bad. Fortunately for Portland, the Jazz were simply worse. Brice Sensabaugh was high-scorer for the Jazz with 31 . For the Blazers, Jrue Holiday and Scoot Henderson both had 25, while Donovan Clingan got the double-double with 15 boards, 21 points and 7 blocks.
Here are a some observations
from the victory.
Horrible Start
Portland started the game looking disinterested and lethargic. Meanwhile, Utah was far more active, precise, and accurate. The result was an 8-0 early lead for the Jazz. The Blazers would eventually snap out of their zombie trance, but not before falling behind by 18 with 3:30 left in the first quarter. That’s just an inexcusable performance out of the gate from a likely post-season-bound team.
Turnovers
Neither team protected the ball real well, combining for 41 turnovers. Sadly, Portland had the majority of them with a depressing 24. Somehow that number flatters the Blazers. It could have been worse. They were loose and reckless with the ball all game. The Blazers are last in the NBA with 17.2 turnovers per game, 1.3 more than the next-worst team. It’s been a problem all season, and it’s not getting better.
Scoot
Scoot Henderson deserves some props for his game tonight, especially in the first half when things weren’t exactly going to plan. He was 7-10 from the field and 4-5 for 18 points in the first half, and the Blazers needed all of those points to dig their way out of their early hole. It wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine though as he finished with 5 turnovers, more than you’d like to see. Nevertheless, his shooting the last three games has been on point. That’s extremely good news considering the number of poor-shooting games he’s had this season after his long-awaited return from injury. He finished shooting 57.1% from the field and 71.4% from deep, numbers that any point guard would proud of.
Energy From the Bench
On a night when the starters weren’t dominating like they probably should have, the bench stepped up and helped fill the void, especially in the first half. Sidy Cissoko was +20 and Vit Krejci was +19 in the opening quarters when some of the starters had negatives numbers. Scoot was a real asset during this stretch as well. Cissoko finished with 14 points, a few highlight dunks in transition, and energetic defense. If not for the burst from the bench this game might have gone down a dark path for the Portland.
Up Next
The Blazers will fly cross-country to take on the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday at 3:00 PM PDT. That game kicks off a pivotal five-game road trip that will go a long way to determining their probable post-season positioning.
