The Portland Trail Blazers (1-3) missed an opportunity to get their first road win of the season in one of the most hostile environments in the NBA by falling 103-96 to the Utah Jazz (4-0) at Energy Solutions Arena.
The Trail Blazers led for much of the game, at one time building an 11-point lead, but were outscored 29-18 in the fourth quarter by a surging Utah squad that shot 52% (39-for-71) from the field and 95.5% (21-of-22) from the free throw line.
“We did some good things, but we’ve got to finish the game off,” said Nate McMillan. “We had five turnovers in that fourth quarter. We have the lead going into the fourth quarter, playing a pretty good game, and we give up 58 points in the second half, 29 in the third, 29 in the fourth. In a situation like that, you play a good first half, you’ve got to come out and play another 24 minutes and right now we’re not getting that full 48 minutes.”
Brandon Roy’s layin with a minute to play cut the Jazz lead to one, but the Trail Blazers would fail to score another point as the Jazz cruised to a seven-point victory.
“We’re fighting, but we’re not executing right now and we’ve got to do a better job on the road when the crowd gets loud,” said Roy. “We can’t panic, we’ve got to stick to what we’re doing. Tonight was another case, we panicked and they made a run.”
That run was helped in part by Utah’s ability to get to the free-throw line in the fourth quarter. The Jazz shot 17 of their 22 free-throws in the final quarter.
“I thought that we were playing aggressive defense and it should have been called both ways,” said McMillan. “They went to the penalty early, and I think they shoot something like 15, 16 free throws in the fourth quarter. It’s going to be hard to guard anybody during the penalty that early.”
LaMarcus Aldridge and Roy tied for the team lead in points with 18. Aldridge added two rebounds, two steals and a blocked shot before fouling out with 3:18 to play in the game, and Roy contributed a team-high six assists.
Mehmet Okur scored a game-high 23 points to lead the Jazz. Both teams had five players score in double figures.
Steve Blake had possibly his best offensive showing of the season, finishing with 16 points on 5-for-10 shooting from the field and 3-of-5 from beyond the three point line. Blake did most of his damage in the first half, scoring 14 before the halftime intermission.
“I was shooting the ball really well in the first half,” said Blake. “They didn’t leave me like they did in the second half so I couldn’t quite get those same shots. They made adjustments and that’s what good teams do.”
Joel Przybilla’s finished with a game-high 16 rebounds. Nicolas Batum, starting for the first time in his four game NBA career, finished with five points, six rebounds and two steals in just 17 minutes of play.
Portland won’t have much time to dwell on Wednesday’s loss as they play host to the Houston Rockets Thursday night in a nationally televised game on TNT. Tipoff for that contest is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
