PORTLAND — The Utah Jazz absolutely clobbered the Portland Trail Blazers, 141-99, at the Moda Center on Friday night, ending a five-game losing streak.
Before we get into the future implications of this game, first, some light housekeeping.
Lauri Markkanen was a late scratch on Friday. Shortly before going out onto the court for his pregame warmup, Markkanen said he felt a little bit of tension in his lower back, similar to how it felt before the Jazz played the Sacramento Kings on Oct. 29.
After that game, Markkanen missed three games because of lower back spasms.
“I was made aware, right before he went out to warm up, that maybe something was going on,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said. “He was going to go out and really try to test it and push it and meet with the medical team. Then after his warm up and conversations, we just decided that it was best to hold him out tonight.”
Markkanen is hoping that taking it easy on Friday will give him a better shot at playing Sunday when the team is in Sacramento, the final game of this road trip.
The second piece of housekeeping is that rookie Kyle Filipowski has been cleared to play. He was sent over to play with the Salt Lake City Stars on Friday night in Los Angeles to get a ramp-up game under his belt before rejoining the Jazz after missing seven straight games due to a right ankle sprain and lower left leg inflammation.
In the Stars’ win over the South Bay Lakers, Filipowski had a 10-point, 10-rebound double double. Hardy said the plan is for Filipowski to travel to Sacramento to rejoin the Jazz and he is expected to play on Sunday.
Now, to the Jazz’s game. Frankly, the Trail Blazers are really, really bad. They’ve been playing without Donovan Clingan, and Toumani Camara suffered a foot injury early in the game Friday, so it’s not like they were at full strength.
Even so, they probably shouldn’t be so bad that they are getting blown out by 42 points by the Jazz. But, on a night when the Jazz, even without Markkanen, are taking care of the ball, shooting 43% from 3-point land and constantly running in transition, they’re fully capable of beating the bad teams.
All that being said, the Blazers are one of the teams that is at the bottom of the standings (8-15) along with the Jazz (5-17), New Orleans Pelicans (5-18), Washington Wizards (2-18), Charlotte Hornets (6-16) and Philadelphia 76ers (6-15).
Make no mistake, the Jazz brass are looking beyond this season and hoping for some good luck come NBA lottery night. That means racking up losses is important, and the losses against the other teams at the bottom of the standings are even more important because they could come into play should there be a tiebreaker situation at the end of the season.
Currently, the Jazz are clearly on pace to lose more games than the Blazers, but if Friday’s performance from the Portland squad is any indication of what’s to come for the rest of this season, then a tiebreaker for better lottery positioning could end up being critical.
From a playing standpoint, there were some things to be really happy about on Friday night, like Keyonte George’s ball pressure and overall defensive effort, the Jazz only having 14 turnovers and Walker Kessler finishing with an impressive 13 points, 17 rebounds and five blocks.
Those are the kinds of things you love to see as these players continue to develop, but if you’re someone who is coveting a player like Cooper Flagg, you just wish that those kinds of performances would happen in the course of a loss rather than an absolute blowout against a lottery contender.