The Utah Jazz travel to Portland on Thursday to take on the Trail Blazers in a contest between the two teams currently sitting at the bottom of the Northwest Division. This is the second time these two teams have faced each other. They last faced each other on December 6, 2024. The Jazz defeated the Trail Blazers 141-99 in Portland behind 22 points from Johnny Juzang and 20 points from John Collins. The Jazz shot 55% from the field in this game, producing their best offensive performance of the year. This performance was an outlier for how well the Jazz have done offensively this year. They rank in the bottom half of the NBA in points per game and field goal percentage. John Collins is considered the game-winning decision for this game, but the Jazz still have Lauri Markkanen and Collin Sexton leading their offense in this game. Both Markkanen and Sexton are averaging 17 or more points per game. The Jazz also recently welcomed their sixth man, Jordan Clarkson, back from injury. His return has helped Utah win two of its last three games.

Portland head coach Chauncey Billups will have to come into this game with a different game plan to slow Utah down compared to the previous game. Billups’ coaching record in three seasons with Portland is 81-165 during their rebuild. The Trailblazers are led by two talented guards: Shaedon Sharpe and Anfernee Simons. Both Sharpe and Simons are averaging 17.4 points per game. DeAndre Ayton will be tasked with slowing down Utah’s bigs. In their previous game, Ayton was played off the floor and only scored a total of 6 points in 17 minutes played. Utah’s strength is their frontcourt and I believe we will see another dominant performance from them against Portland. Utah is starting to revive some of its players from injury and has played well in recent contests. I know it was only one game, but it looked like Utah had Portland figured out. For me at least, being on Utah’s side is enough to go to Portland and get a win.

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