Part two of Thursday’s post-Christmas TNT doubleheader features two teams that are vying for a higher spot in the West as the 14-17 Portland Trail Blazers take the trip to Salt Lake to take on the 18-12 Utah Jazz inside the Vivint Smart Home Arena at 10:30 p.m., ET/ 9:30 p.m. CT.
These teams, separated by four wins and two places in the Western Standings (Utah in seventh place, Portland in ninth place), are both looking for wins to get their holiday rust out of their systems. Portland is coming off of a loss to the second-to-last place New Orleans Pelicans by a score of 102-94, where Carmelo Anthony finished with 23 points and nine boards. Conversely, Hassan Whiteside struggled against a Zion Williamson-less Pelicans squad that, due to the compiled effort of rookie Jaxson Hayes and new starter Derrick Favors, held him to just 16 points and 11 rebounds.
Portland’s offense that usually found a way to spark up from downtown just couldn’t get the mojo going against the young Pellies, only making 13.8 percent of their field attempts from behind the arc. Their offensive ineptitude could continue tonight against a much more defensively stout Jazz team led by none other than the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, the French Rejection Rudy Gobert. In a 107-104 loss to the Miami Heat, Gobert contributed 18 points and 20 rebounds en route to his 22nd double-double this year.
And per schedule, he fanned five shots while his other frontcourt cohorts in Bogdan Bogdanovic and Joe Ingles combined for 46 points.
The biggest question mark this year has been Quinn Snyder’s lack of confidence-imbuement toward his guard rotation, and pending Mike Conley’s ailing hamstring that’s affected this team in quantities, Donovan Mitchell has tried his very best with averages of 24.8 points per game, 4 assists and 4.6 rebounds per contest.
Utah’s role players will need to step up, and though they have already been maligned in trades surrounding former first-round pick Dante Exum and waivers to Jeff Green, picking up Jordan Clarkson as a result of sending their once-esteemed “future at the guard spot” in Exum to Cleveland could do more good than harm. He’ll have to learn the system a little more, accordingly, but expect Snyder to roll out his new depth piece tonight. In 29 games this year with the Cavs, Clarkson has put up a solid 14.6 points per contest off 44.6 shooting, while dropping a respectable 37.1 percent of his shots from downtown.
Tonight’s battle of bigs between Whiteside and Gobert should be exciting to witness, and then factoring in the nightly impacts of Mitchell Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum equal a pretty enjoyable treat for two teams that get the chance to play on national television during the Holiday break.
Blazers/Jazz tip-off at 10:30 p.m. ET/9:30 p.m. CT.
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