The Blazers got creamed by the Utah Jazz on Friday night. It started out somewhat close, but the Jazz shot the lights out, connecting on a crazy-high 52 percent of their three point attempts, and came away with a 30 point blowout of our hometown Blazers. The final score was 120-90.
Even Blazers star guard Damian Lillard had an off night, scoring only 19 points, well below his average. Asked about the lopsided loss, Lillard was gracious. “It was us,” he said, “some mistakes we made, but it was also them. You’ve got to give them credit. Sometimes teams have nights.”
Yes, he had an off game, but Lillard still managed some sweet shots, like this one:
THE NET BARELY MOVED pic.twitter.com/tc3IZp5AMg
— Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) December 22, 2018
The Blazers were only down by six points after the first half. Cheerful fans had no idea what devastation awaited them in the final two quarters. In fact, the second half was so brutal I’m going to spend an extra long time with the fan action in hallways during the break. It was festive.
Here’s a snappy father/son duo:
Look, it’s actress Joy Bryant, star of NBC’s Parenthood and HBO’s Ballers! What’s she doing blazing around Portland? Shooting the new Netflix series Trinkets, it turns out.
These guys were getting a lot of attention. They are known as “The Jazz Brothers” and it turns out they are actually brothers—well, three brothers and a brother-in-law who is married to their sister. They are all huge fans of former Jazz great John Stockton, hence the sartorial tribute. They live all over the country, one in Dallas, one in Atlanta. The brother-in-law, second from left, lives in Oregon. He says he’s actually a Blazer fan, but on this special night, once a season, they all meet up in Portland to become “The Jazz Brothers.”
And here are two Jazz Brother wives and a sister. The sister is on the left :
And the award for best Rip City holiday dress goes to…
Okay, back to the damn game. The second half was rough. The Jazz kept hitting their shots, especially Joe Ingles, the saucy Australian, who razzed the Portland players for failing to stop him. We’ll get you back for that Joe! See you on Christmas Day, mate!
The Jazz defense swarmed Lillard and McCollum, leaving secondary players wide open. But those guys couldn’t find the basket. It was a tough night, okay? Toward the end, the deep bench guys got to see the floor. This can be kind of fun, but no one really distinguished themselves except for a Utah reserve named Georges Niang who hit a couple threes.
Afterwards coach Stotts got straight to the point, “Obviously it was a tough game. We didn’t play very well…. We got beat, top to bottom.”
Let’s just move on, alright? The Blazers play the Dallas Mavericks here in Portland on Sunday night. They should win.