By: Lauren Spencer
The Utah Jazz hosted the Portland Trailblazers and fell short after an aggressive, physical match, 92-89. The Jazz are still without offensive staples; Gordon Hayward and Rodney Hood who have been absent from the last two games – Hayward is out with a shoulder injury and Rodney Hood with gastrointestinal distress.
“Sometimes adversity allows you to find out more about your team and gives guys opportunities to contribute,” said Utah Jazz head coach Quin Snyder.
Derrick Favors continued to carry the offensive load against Portland, as well as contributing in other areas of the board. Favors had 26 points, 1 block, 1 steal, and 13 rebounds total.
“I just wanted to come out and be aggressive and try to get things going in the paint early. Try to make myself available for the ball to be aggressive so I can get other guys going when they start doubling or paying more attention to me, and hopefully get the other guys going,” said Favors. “We just need to stick together as a team, work through it and wait for them (Hayward, Hood) to get back.”
The Jazz stabilized the lead at half time, 39-37 The Trailblazers led during the third quarter, and the Jazz had a quick response to catch up, stayed aggressive, and outscored the Trailblazers by 8 points. The Jazz lost possessions in transitions though and were unable to execute some plays on offense.
Portland’s guard Damian Lillard came alive in the 3rd quarter and really moved his team on offense. Lillard scored 8 points in the third quarter and 13 points in the fourth. He had 23 points, 12 assists, and 8 rebounds total. “He’s good, a dynamic player. We knew he was going to be aggressive so we just tried to maintain him as much as possible, and he made it to the line a lot. He wasn’t the only guy we were worried about, and he took advantage of that,” said Burke.
The Trailblazers continued to match their opposing team’s tempo in the fourth quarter, while the Jazz missed plays and lacked communication.
“It was a tough game. They’ve been one of the better teams in the league since the All-Star break. We knew it was going to be a tough one. Coming up here in the altitude, them on their home floor playing well. We had to go and take it. We had to come together and get tougher on the defensive end and play together on the offensive end. I thought we did that. We did everything we needed going down the stretch to get it done,” said Lillard.
In the fourth quarter the Trailblazers outscored the Jazz by 13 points and eventually edged past them, after a missed 3 point attempt by Favors with .4 seconds left in the game, to finish the Jazz 92-89.
“We played together as a team, but that was just a tough loss,” said Favors.
Quin Snyder addressed the media following the loss HERE
Derrick Favors addressed the media following the loss HERE
Trey Burke addressed the media following the loss HERE
