SALT LAKE CITY — Let’s not bury what has happened. For the fourth time in four games, the Utah Jazz were beat on Saturday night.
This time, it happened at the hands of former Weber State star Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers. Lillard dropped 51 points and the Blazers ultimately won, 124-107.
Games in the NBA often come down to a decisive run by the winning team, but on Saturday, the Blazers had one in each of the first three quarters to carry them to the win. There was the 12-0 run in the first quarter after the Jazz had built a 13-point lead, then there was a 15-0 one to close the first half with a 10-point lead, then a 13-0 one in the third frame to turn a five-point lead into a commanding 18-point one.
Although not quite as decisive as the above three runs, Portland also went on a 13-4 one in the fourth after Utah had rallied to within six.
Those runs came a game after the Jazz surrendered a 27-1 run to the Denver Nuggets, which had made a nine-point lead turn into a 17-point deficit.
Lillard has put together a literally historic stretch over his past six games, as on Saturday he became the first player in NBA history to have made at least six 3-pointers in six straight games. He finished the night a scorching 9-of-15 from beyond the arc. He is also the first player in league history to average 45 points and 10 assists in a six-game span.
He did snap an NBA record streak of five straight games in which he tallied at least 35 points with five 3-pointers, five rebounds and five assists, as he came up with just two boards. That being said, he tallied a tremendous 12 assists.
Lillard is in a special zone, but nevertheless, the Jazz were not good defensively again, giving up at least 124 points for the third time during this losing streak.
Offensively, like Lillard, Utah actually shot well from 3 as a team, finishing 18-of-41, but they were bad from inside the line, going just 22-of-53. They went just 8-of-27 on two-point shots in the first half.
Donovan Mitchell led the Jazz with 25 points but they came on 21 shots. Mike Conley was put back in the starting lineup for the first time since returning seven games ago from an injury that kept him out for a month (he had one start following an injury that kept him out for two weeks in early December) and was excellent in the first half with 19 points.
He had 22 on the night, as did Bojan Bogdanovic, who singlehandedly kept Utah close in the third quarter before the Blazers pulled away for good.
The Jazz will return home and have a few days away from action before playing the Nuggets again on Feb. 5 at Vivint Arena.