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The Jazz continue to take cruising speed. The Utah team won their fifth consecutive victory (13th in 15 games) by beating Portland by 105-120 without excessive problems, reinforcing their third position in the West and getting closer and closer to the leadership duo of Suns and Warriors. These seemed unattainable a few weeks ago, but the Salt Lake City side, just two wins behind both, threatens to emerge as third in contention in the fight for the lead.
While the visit to the Moda Center was not a walk, it was far from being an even shock. Snyder’s were ahead from start to finish, and while the Blazers made some attempt to tighten things up, they never got close enough to actually threaten to take the lead. In fact, in the second half the distance became wider and wider until it reached 22 points (89-111), granting the visitors a free closing start.
This occurred despite the absence of Donovan Mitchell, whom his companions managed to supply with a choral performance in which many stood out. Who did it the most was Rudy Gobert with 22 points and 14 rebounds, although Rudy Gay and Jordan Clarkson, with 21 and 19 points respectively from the bench, followed closely behind. Additionally, Bojan Bogdanovic, Mike Conley and Hassan Whiteside finished with 15 points apiece, giving the Portlanders more fronts to cover than they were capable of.
“I think you have to give credit to Gobert, he has improved his game with the ball a lot,” Snyder said after the crash. “He has learned to improve his reception and his execution after it. In addition, he is managing to force more fouls and go to the free throw line more times.
The Blazers, on the other hand, relied excessively on the scoring of Damian Lillard and Norman Powell, who with 32 points each and with almost identical data of successes (10/23 for the point guard, 11/23 for the guard) commanded theirs. practically alone. Only Larry Nance Jr., author of 14 points, accompanied them in double digits, which made it impossible to keep up with the Jazz and caused the locals to end up falling very short.
With this, the Oregonians have suffered 13 defeats in their last 16 games, which has made them come out of the positions of play-in and it has left them at risk of even starting to sag. It is true that casualties like those of CJ McCollum or Jusuf Nurkic have weighed down the team, but we will see if they are able to compose themselves and start to turn this bad moment around.
(Portrait photo: Tim Nwachukwu / Getty Images)
