Late Heroics by Mitchell Fall Short in 109-104 Loss to Blazers

Despite Donovan Mitchell’s 36 points, the Utah Jazz stumbled and fumbled away their 6-game win streak in their 109-104 loss to the Portland Trailblazers at home. (Deseret News)

Story of the Game

It’s hard to beat a good NBA team three times in a row, as the Utah Jazz’s 109-104 home loss to the Portland Trailblazers demonstrated.

Portland entered the game 28 and 17 against every team in the NBA except Utah, who they had already lost two games to. From the opening tip it was clear how determined the visiting team was to prevent a third loss to a key division rival. They adapted both their offensive and defensive schemes, running the offense through Jusuf Nurkic at the top of the key to pull reigning Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert away from the hoop. Defensively, they periodically shifted away from their normal strategy of dropping their center toward the hoop and instead switched every position off picks, sometimes due to personnel on the floor but at other times just changing the look they gave Utah.

The Jazz entered the game on a season high six-game win streak and were never going to roll over. It was a physical and frequently contentious contest with five technical fouls as well as several warnings from referees. 

But odds can’t be defied forever, and in three games against a good team the odds are that circumstances will conspire against victory.

Tonight, that took the form of mighty struggles by Utah’s best shooters, Kyle Korver and Joe Ingles, who combined to blank out on eight three-point attempts. Simultaneously, Portland’s bench cashed in on five of seven from long range. 

Donovan Mitchell tried to grab back the game in the fourth quarter by sheer force of will, scoring the Jazz’s last 13 points to cap off a 25-point second half. But his team’s 21 percent debacle from deep was too much to overcome, and the odds ended Utah’s winning streak. 

Stars of the Game

Superstar: Donovan Mitchell (36 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal, 10 free throws)

Mitchell’s shooting reverted to his efficient profile from earlier in the season as he took 28 shots on the night. But down the stretch of a game where the Jazz fell apart in the second half, he put fear into the Blazers all by himself. Not only did he score 13 straight points to bring the Jazz back within four with half a minute to play¹, but he drew enough attention to get Joe Ingles a wide open corner three that would have cut the deficit to one in the waning seconds. After Ingles missed and trudged down court with his head down, Utah’s second year star approached his veteran teammate furiously clapping his hands, showing the franchise-changing intangibles that have shifted Utah’s future prospects.

Secondary Star: Ricky Rubio (12 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 three, 5 free throws, 14 minutes) and Derrick Favors (12 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 blocks, 6 free throws)

In Rubio’s first game back from injury, there was clearly some rust early. His normally rock-solid handles simply weren’t there, as illustrated by his four turnovers, several of them unforced. But he required only six shots for his 12 points and was Utah’s only bench player with a positive plus-minus. 

Favors was probably Utah’s most effective center this game. While neither he nor Gobert can claim to approach the impact of Nurkic’s game (22 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists, and a massive 6 blocks!), it was Favors who made major contributions at key moments in the game — specifically, fueling Utah’s dominant defense with a pair of blocks in the second quarter and keeping the game from slipping away completely in the second half by nailing all six of his free throw attempts. 

Secret Star: Royce O’Neale (11 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals, 1 block, 1 three, 2 free throws)

The undrafted second-year gem from Baylor was the Jazz’s best three point shooter, making one of two attempts, and also attacked the rim several times off the dribble, an invaluable contribution for this team. He also provided his normal excellent defense against Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum.

Stats of the Game

8 – Combined points by Ingles and Korver, who typically provide nearly 22 points per contest.

37.2 – Utah’s putrid effective field goal rating in the second half. 

17 – Points by Nurkic in the third quarter, a decisive stretch of the game.

35.9 – McCollum’s effective field goal rate in the three games against Utah. He averaged only 12 points on 15 shots in those games.

Sundries

• Gobert has been phenomenal lately, but tonight he was significantly outplayed by Nurkic on both ends of the court. The Frenchman was clearly Terry Stott’s focus in the game plan, with the Blazers using Nurkic as a distributor at the top of the key and back cutting the Jazz to death early in the game. Gobert’s four blocks exaggerate his defensive impact, as Utah had a defensive rating of 116.4 with the Stifle Tower on the court, second worst mark on the team. Expect Gobert to be furious next game as he takes showings like this personally.
• It’s amazing how much is expected of Joe Ingles, one of the NBA’s least likely stories. With Utah limited to one hobbled point guard, Ingles dished a team-high six assists and led the team with a plus-minus of plus-four. Yet the fact of the matter is, he has to be better than this. Two points? Zero of three from behind the arc? 36 percent from long range is a respectable rate for most players across an NBA season, but not this player, and that’s what Ingles is shooting right now. Portland was routinely going under screens on him, and he missed a wide open corner three in the waning seconds that just might have allowed Utah to steal the game. This team counts on him to do too much for him to have these games. When he does, they’re often going to lose.
• Portland was on the wrong end of several questionable technicals this game. If the Jazz had managed to steal this win at the end, there would have been a lot of angry Blazer fans with a solid complaint.
• While Evan Turner is something of a tool without a use in the modern NBA, those same characteristics — namely, a strong ability to create and make mediocre shots from the midrange — make him very useful against Utah. The Jazz defense is so good that teams often have to resort to midrange shots, and very few role players in the league are better at manufacturing points in those areas than Turner. He wants the shots the Jazz want to give up.
• When a team built around Gobert gives up 60 points in the paint, they did not execute their game plan.  
• Once again, the Jazz held Lillard and McCollum in check. They combined for 40 points but required 37 shots to generate those. Portland may be above Utah in the standings, but the way these teams have played this season, the Jazz have zero fear of meeting this team in the playoffs. 

The story of the season has been Utah’s schedule and how to puzzle out just how good the team is outside of that. Tough sledding has typically resulted in losses, stretches of friendly terrain in wins. This game follows that same pattern.

While the Jazz are clearly more confident and playing much better ball than earlier in the season, they’re going to have to sustain that in important games against better competition than they’ve faced of late, as five of their next six contests see them tilt against Western Conference rivals, starting with the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday.