The Portland Trail Blazers never really looked in control the entire way as the Utah Jazz knocked them off 118-105 in Salt Lake City tonight. When it was all said and done, it wasn’t a necessarily poor shooting night that killed the Blazers, but rather a great performance by the Jazz, who were unstoppable for most of the night.
Andrei Kirilenko has clearly returned to his old self in the past seven games or so and tonight’s performance was vintage AK47. He finished with 22 points (8/9 FG, 6/7 FT), eight assists, six rebounds, two steals and two blocks. Mehmet Okur was feeling it too, as he shot an equally ridiculous 11 of 13 from the field on the way to 28 points and eight rebounds. Overall the Jazz shot .627 from the field to the Blazers’ .425 — it just wasn’t even close.
For Portland, LaMarcus Aldridge did his best to cover once again for Brandon Roy’s absence, with 27 points, 12 rebounds and five assists in what was one of his best statistical lines of the season. Martell Webster had 20 points, but like the rest of the visitors’ starters, he could not crack the 50% mark from the field.
In positive news for Aussie fans, Patty Mills once again managed to get a short amount of court time after the result was already decided. He played the final 47 seconds of the game and scored his first NBA points, with a banked runner in the lane — his only field goal attempt of the game. Mills was matched up against his former teammate with the Idaho Stampede of the D-League, Sundiata Gaines. Hoop Data boxscore.
Where was the game won and lost? Two specific shooting statistics tell the tale. The Jazz did a great job of getting themselves shots at the rim, whilst the Blazers were restricted to long-range twos — the least efficient shot in basketball according to most estimations. The Jazz shot 29/35 (82.9%) at the rim (including 22 assisted field goals) whilst the Blazers only managed 17/27 (63%) at the rim with only six of those assisted. Meanwhile, from 16-23 feet the Blazers went 9/29 whilst the Jazz were much less trigger happy from that range, shooting 5/12. It’s not hard to work out which way the game was running when you look at those two shooting measures alone.
