Both teams are coming off painful road losses as the Utah Jazz host the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night in Salt Lake City.
Utah’s 111-103 loss Monday at Dallas hurt because the Mavericks moved within a half-game of the Jazz for the coveted No. 4 spot and home-court advantage in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.
And the Trail Blazers suffered an agonizingly lopsided loss at Minnesota, falling 124-81 to the Timberwolves. It was their second double-digit defeat against Minnesota in three days.
Monday’s 43-point drubbing was also Portland’s fifth consecutive loss.
“I sat at this microphone a couple nights ago. Obviously we lost the game, and I felt good about us,” Blazers coach Chauncey Billups said Monday in Minneapolis, referring to the previous loss in Portland. “I felt good about our effort. I felt good about how hard we played, how hard we competed. Obviously, I have a different feeling today.”
Wednesday’s game against Utah will wrap up a four-game road trip for Portland, which lost its previous two contests to the Jazz this season by double figures.
The Blazers will again be missing several key players, including Damian Lillard. On a bright note, rookie Brandon Williams scored 27 points in his first career start Monday night. Portland also inserted rookie Trendon Watford in the starting lineup because of injuries and he contributed 11 points and seven rebounds.
While Portland is hoping to turn things around in time to earn a spot in the NBA’s play-in round, the Jazz are still in the thick of things in the upper echelon of the Western Conference standings. A win over Dallas would have given Utah a 2.5-game lead over the Mavericks.
The Jazz did make things interesting in Dallas, pulling within seven points after falling behind by 20 points late in the third quarter.
“To me the story of this game is we’re down 20 on the road. You don’t see that as far as what we did to come back and get right there,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. “I don’t think we played as well as we can. We’ve had some good games. We’ve played some good stretches. But we haven’t hit a stride yet.”
Even so, the Jazz are 10-3 since a rough 4-12 month of January.
Monday’s loss was one of the more intense showdowns of the season. Rudy Gobert and Luka Doncic had a couple of run-ins. Gobert also didn’t appreciate how he was treated by the Dallas bench while he was on the court.
If they do end up matched against each other in the playoffs, it could be a feisty duel.
“We might see them — this kind of felt like that,” said Jazz All-Star Donovan Mitchell.
In the meantime, the Jazz have 10 games remaining before that pivotal rematch at Dallas on March 27, beginning Wednesday night.
–Field Level Media
