Portland Trail Blazers vs. Utah Jazz preview

While there are very few teams in the NBA worse at winning a given game than the Portland Trail Blazers, the Utah Jazz might be one of them.

At 7-21, the Jazz are just as deep in a rebuild as the Blazers, also unwilling to do much to improve their team, and perhaps a little bolder when it comes to capitalizing on some promising starts from recent years to sabotage them in order to increase their draft lottery odds.

Still, you may remember that it was this very opponent — without its best player, sidelined with injury — that handed Portland a 42-point defeat 20 days ago today that sparked jeers at the Moda Center. Since then, the Blazers have won just one game, a surprise win over the Denver Nuggets. The Jazz have won two.

In a game where the Titans come out on top, expect the margin to be much smaller than the 40-point embarrassment: The Jazz and Blazers are 27th and 28th in net standings, respectively, with The Blazers’ defense is a tad better and their offense is a tad worse.

Portland Trail Blazers (9-20) vs. Utah Jazz (7-21) – Thurs. Dec. 26 – 7 p.m. Pacific

How to watch via antenna or cable: Check out your options on the Rip City Television Network

How to watch via streaming: BlazerVision in Oregon and Washington; NBA TV elsewhere (also available to stream via NBA TV on League Pass)

Trail Blazers injuries: Robert Williams III, Dalano Banton (daily); Matisse Thybulle (out)

Jazz injuries: Keyonte George, John Collins (daily); Taylor Hendricks (out).

Reader questions

Before most games, we ask all of you to improve our preview by asking us questions! Look out for posts like this to add your questions and have them (possibly) answered right here in these previews!

From RedUniInLA:

Why have the Blazers been knocked out so often lately?

I don’t want to say it’s because they have a bad team. Then again, there are a disturbing number of modern seasons on this list of the Blazers’ worst losses of all time, and one enterprising fan has tallied up the number of 20-plus point losses under the current coaching administration, in case you’re interested.

From boombarfalarfa:

It seems that the collective wisdom (aside from the owners who are either ignorant or indifferent) surrounding this team is that it is seriously broken. The question then is: If the site authors were in control, what would your short to medium term plan be to get things back on track?

I can only speak for one author on this site (me!), and I don’t think I agree with this premise. Is the team bad? Yes. Have you found a franchise player yet? No. Are they unique in the NBA in this regard? Also no. There are other teams that are faring far worse – with more guaranteed long-term funds on the books, fewer young players and fewer future assets. To answer the question: I think I would be more willing to sell veterans Jerami Grant and Anfernee Simons for a bit cheaper, as there is no guarantee that their play will improve. Beyond that, I don’t have much of an answer. We’re still at the beginning of a long rebuild, and it’s hard to assess the long-term impact of 20- and 21-year-olds when some players need four, five or more seasons to even get into the first part of their prime.

From Chiweenie:

DC averages 33.3% on 3s. With the holiday spirit in mind, should the Blazers try to get him out for 8-10 attempts?

The real answer is no… the “who cares, why not?” answer is yes! LET THEM FLY, BIG MAN!

From Blazercritic1:

Do they make XXL Hello Kitty shirts? Blazers coaches should wear them until they win again.

I like the idea of ​​the “rookie backpack” going to the coaching staff, so yeah, let’s make that happen.

From Drenwah:

I focused on comparing Scoot and Keyonte George from Utah. This fixation comes from the fact that they were drafted in the same class two years ago, are almost the same age, and play the same position on bad teams. Currently, George has outperformed Scoot in both seasons of her early career. Although neither player hints at being an All-Star, one came in at No. 16 and the other at No. 3.

In hindsight, would you choose George over Scoot at this point?

You made me type “keyonte george basketball reference” into Google for the first time ever, so first off, congratulations. My hot tip is no. Look: Scoot isn’t playing well. But careers don’t last 14 months. Plus, it’s not like a 39% shooting rate is much of a shock to George (even if that’s mitigated by him taking more shots from deep), and he turns the ball over almost as much as Scoot. I’m willing to give Henderson the benefit of the doubt and give him a few more years before making any statements one way or the other.

From zigzag:

Critical game for these struggling franchises. I wonder who wants it more?

…we’ll have to tune in to find out! But the Blazers just… haven’t looked great lately.

What you should pay attention to:

Sales… and not the delicious apple pie. These teams are constantly dealing with holiday grease on their hands because they can’t keep the ball, and the stats back it up: Utah has the worst turnover rate in the league at 18.7%. The Blazers aren’t far behind at 28th out of 30 teams, and while there are plenty of those teams they can’t do well, giving away possessions is a surefire way to get a team deeper into the losing zone.

About the opponent:

The Athletic’s Tony Jones (subscription required) writes about how former Jazz and current Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell has mellowed after years of basketball-related turmoil:

With this Cavs team, however, Mitchell is finding something that had previously eluded him, what he calls “a sense of peace.”

“For years everyone has been talking about whether I like Rudy or whether I’m going to the New York Knicks or the Miami Heat,” he said. “It’s great to finally have that feeling of peace.” He’s in a locker room where it seems like everyone seems to like each other. He surrounded himself with friends and family. And most importantly for him and the Cavaliers, Mitchell is playing the best basketball of his career. “If I can paint a picture, ideally I would win a championship at some point in the next five years,” he said. “It’s hard to win championships. It’s hard to win in this league. Despite public opinion, I love being in Cleveland and I want to win a title with this group.”

Getting to this point hasn’t been easy for Mitchell, which is why this time he wants to actually enjoy the moment.

King James Gospel’s Josh Cornelissen talks about the sobering experience Jazz fans might have with guard Colin Sexton:

The Cleveland Cavaliers have seen this level of scoring ability up close; At one point, in just his third season in the league, he averaged 24.3 points per game. When you combine his goalscoring abilities with the intensity he brings to the pitch, you get a player who seems to fit perfectly into a team’s long-term plans. But the Cavaliers were unwilling to sign Sexton to a lucrative second contract, instead entering restricted free agency without a contract and ultimately trading him to the Utah Jazz. They chose Darius Garland over Sexton and weren’t even interested in pairing the two together in the backcourt long-term. Why was that? Well, it’s because of something that’s slowly becoming clear to the Utah Jazz: Collin Sexton passes the eye test, but ultimately he’s too small to be a winger, too bad of a passer to be a point guard, and too inconsistent on defense to be a winning player.