Portland, Ore. • Game 82 was not a thing of beauty.
It was, nevertheless, a regular season-closing victory that delivered the Utah Jazz the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference playoffs.
They will begin their best-of-seven first-round series in Dallas against the Mavericks this Saturday at 11 a.m. MT. It will be televised by ESPN.
Despite missing their first 17 attempts from 3-point range and struggling to put away a tanking Blazers squad playing zero rotation regulars, the Jazz still rolled to a 111-80 win and a Northwest Division title.
“Once the ball started moving more, we started running. And when we run, there’s a ripple effect,” coach Quin Snyder said. “… We haven’t played a team that switches one through five in awhile.”
With coach Quin Snyder saying all season long that the team’s most important goal is simply to be playing its best basketball at the right time of the season, Utah took the Moda Center court without top scorers Donovan Mitchell and Bojan Bogdanovic and proceeded to shoot 5 for 26 overall and 0 of 14 beyond the arc, in totaling 16 first-quarter points.
Despite that mind-boggling start, the Jazz took over the game in the second quarter, as Portland’s random assemblage of castoffs could no longer string together any defensive stops — where the Jazz racked up 36 points.
A 12-2 run in the third ballooned Utah’s advantage to 18, and the game only continued to get more out of hand from there, as the Blazers did not have the personnel to mount a legitimate threat — even against an opponent with a penchant for surrendering double-digit leads this season.
Rudy Gobert contributed 18 points, 13 rebounds, two blocks, and a 10-for-14 performance from the free-throw line. Juancho Hernangomez scored a team-high (and season-high-tying) 22 points while adding eight rebounds. Mike Conley had 14 points and five assists.
The Jazz eventually led by as many as 34 points.
And so, with the game increasingly getting out of hand, the only real intrigue was a bit of scoreboard-watching to determine how the playoff matchups would shake out.
Golden State seemed locked into the No. 3 seed after going up about 30 on the Pelicans, only for a massive New Orleans run to put the game in doubt.
A Warriors loss, coupled with a Dallas win over San Antonio could have put the Mavs third and Golden State fourth.
During the early bleak moments of the Jazz-Blazers game, it appeared there was even a chance that Utah could have dropped all the way to the No. 6 seed, given that a Nuggets team resting all it primary players of consequence still took it to the Lakers.
Despite all the intrigue, none of those what-if scenarios wound up coming to fruition.
And so, top-seeded Phoenix and No. 2 Memphis await the results of the 7-10 play-in tournament that will feature the Wolves, Clippers, Pelicans and Spurs; the No. 3 Warriors will face the sixth-seeded Nuggets; and the Jazz now find themselves in the position of needing to win a game at American Airlines Center in order for their postseason aspirations to extend beyond one round.
The Jazz and Mavs split their four matchups in the regular season: Utah prevailed 120-116 on Christmas night, and 114-109 on Feb. 25; Dallas emerged victorious 111-103 on March 7, and 114-100 on March 27.
Jazz fans will now be eagerly anticipating news on Mavs star Luka Doncic, who exited his team’s finale after grabbing at his left calf and heading for the locker room. Dallas officials termed the injury a “left calf strain.”
“They’re formidable. We have tons of respect for their program. Obviously, Luka is unique, and he’s capable of putting a team on his back,” said Snyder. “… They’re a very solid team that plays excellent team defense, they’re well-coached, and they have an elite player.”
from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/9jpe3Ak
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