SALT LAKE CITY -- After falling behind by as many as 23 points, the Trail Blazers rallied in the fourth quarter before falling 121-115 to the Utah Jazz in front of a sellout crowd of 18,306 Thursday night at Vivant Smarthome Arena.
“I was really proud of the way we competed in the fourth quarter," said Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts. "First three quarters were pretty discouraging. Utah did a nice job of moving the ball, making their shots, scoring in the paint. We didn’t have a lot answers for them early but, we just, we made some shots and got really competitive defensively and put ourselves in a position to win."
The Trail Blazers are now 14-18 overall and 6-11 on the road this season. After winning four straight last week, Portland has now lost their last two games.
Thursday's contest started about as poorly as it could have for the road team with. Damian Lillard missed his and the Trail Blazers's first shot, a wide open three-pointer, and the team as a whole started 1-of-5 from the field. Meanwhile, Jazz guard/forward Joe Ingles started the contest shooting 5-of-5 from there field and 4-of-4 from three to outscore the Blazers 14-13 by himself in the first seven minutes.
But after missing his first three, Lillard made two of his next three attempts from deep while Carmelo Anthony pitched in six points on 3-of-4 shooting, though the Jazz would still take a 15-point advantage into the second quarter.
The Blazers got back into the game early in the second, going on a 9-0 run to start to quarter to cut Utah's lead to 37-31. Portland would eventually outscore Utah by five in the quarter to cut the halftime deficit to a respectable 10 points.
Though it wouldn't stay respectable in there third quarter. After CJ McCollum cut the advantage to seven with a three-pointer early in the third, it looked as if the Blazers might make a game of it. But they'd eventually be outscored by 10 in the quarter, going down by as many as 23 points before entering the fourth trailing 96-76. That seemed like the effective end of the game, especially with no one other than Lillard entering the fourth having scored in double figures.
But for really the first time this season, the Trail Blazers rallied. With Lillard on the bench and behind the play of CJ McCollum, Anfernee Simons and Skal Labissiere, Portland started to chip away at the lead thanks to a series of mini runs. McCollum and Simons combined to score the first seven points of the quarter. A few minutes later, a Labissiere tip in started a 19-3 run, with McCollum scoring eight, to turn a laugher into a one-point game with 4:40 to play.
“I thought Anfernee played maybe one of his best games of the season," said Stotts. "You know he had a tough defensive assignment, he was able to score, he shot efficiently. Gary (Trent Jr.) gave us good minutes, Skal was terrific... He competed against Gobert. You know you look at the plus/minus of those guys and obviously they had an impact on the game."
Though for as hard as they worked to get the game close, they were never able to get over the top to take the lead. Twice Utah pushed their lead back to five multiple times in final three and a half minutes, with Lillard responding back on with threes or McCollum hitting a floater to get it back to one possession.
But down three with 22 seconds to play, Carmelo Anthony missed a 27-footer that didn't draw iron and Royce O'Neale was able to corral the rebound. Portland scored another field goal on a Labissiere dunk, but with less than 24 seconds to play, they were forced to foul on every Jazz possession thereafter. And with Mitchell and Bogdan Bogdanovic going 4-of-5 from the line, the Jazz were able to secure the six-point win.
“It was just a tough game," said Lillard. "I thought they were the better team tonight, but I was really proud of how we fought. Having adversity in pretty much every quarter, we just kept fighting. We didn’t separate, we stayed together and we gave ourselves a chance. I think like four-and-a-half minutes left, it was a seven-point game. We came out of the huddle saying ‘no worries, the game is normal now.’ Let’s be solid, execute, keep competing and try to put the pressure on them and steal the game. And I thought we did that, we just came up short.”
The Blazers were led by Lillard, who went 10-of-21 from the field and 7-of-13 from three for 34 points to go with eight assists and four rebounds in 37 minutes.
CJ McCollum scored 19 of his 25 points in the second half while also tallying four rebounds, two assists and a steal in 38 minutes.
Anfernee Simons logged his first double-double of his career with 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting and 10 rebounds in 28 minutes. Skal Labissiere went 4-of-6 from the field for 10 points, seven rebounds and three assists in 26 minutes.
Carmelo Anthony rounded out Portland's double-digit scorers with 12 points.
Donovan Mitchell led all scorers with 35 points while also handing out seven assists. Joe Ingles finished with 26 points after a flawless start to the game and Rudy Gobert finished with 16 points and 15 rebounds.
Next up, the Trail Blazer return home to host the Los Angeles Lakers for the second time this season at the Moda Center. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.
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December 27, 2019 at 02:44PM
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