The early 3-point shooting undoubtedly pushed aggrieved fans to suggest that perhaps more layups should be attempted.
The first-half free-throw tries might have encouraged those usually begging for a little respect from the refs to instead wish they’d just put their whistles away for a bit.
And the defense was stellar enough that neither of those first two things mattered much.
In the Jazz’s first Christmas Day game since 1997, they flustered Portland into another poor shooting effort, pulling away for a 117-96 win — their third victory in four games.
Rudy Gobert had a near-triple-double, totaling 18 points, 14 rebounds, and seven blocks.
Meanwhile, with the Jazz’s defenders harassing Portland’s shooters, the Blazers wound up making just 39.3 percent of their shots from the field, and hit only nine shots from deep.
Then again, maybe it really was as simple as Donovan Mitchell hitting his first two shot attempts to portend a fortuitous night for Utah.
On the one hand, the opening 12 minutes of action saw the Jazz go 0 for 8 from deep, and just 2 for 8 from the foul line. On the other, a flurry of activity from Derrick Favors and Gobert inside, and Ricky Rubio setting up his teammates meant that, despite those abysmal shooting numbers, the game was still tied.
And so, once Utah actually started making some of those shots, the game turned in its favor.
It didn’t take long. Crowder earned a dubious foul call on a 3-point try, and made two of the freebies. Moments later, he buried the team’s first shot behind the arc.
Joe Ingles and Crowder hit back-to-back treys late in the period, and Utah wound up going 5 for 7 from deep to expand to a 59-47 advantage.
While Damian Lillard kept the Blazers within shouting distance, thanks to 16 first-half points, his teammates couldn’t do much to crack the Jazz’s defense and help him out. Portland shot just 37.5 percent from the field, and went only 3 of 12 from deep in the opening half. (Lillard finished with 20 for the Blazers.)
The third quarter was off-kilter offensively, as Utah had to make do with sporadic shot-making. Following a nice recovery-and-block from Gobert, Rubio shot the ball with confidence, converting a pair of baskets on back-to-back possessions.
Otherwise, Utah didn’t do a whole lot to build its advantage, salvaging a passable quarter only thanks to a late barrage of 3s from Ingles, Korver, and Dante Exum.
In the fourth, the Jazz played enough defense and made just enough shots to gradually pull away. Portland never got closer than nine in the fourth quarter, while Utah built its lead as high as 21.
After scoring but three points on 1-for-10 shooting in the teams’ matchup in Portland last Friday, Mitchell was far better this time around, though there are still issues to be resolved. After scoring 14 in the first half on 6-for-11 from the floor, he finished with 19 points on 8-for-18 shooting.
Ingles finished with 15 points, seven rebounds, and five assists. Rubio had 14 points and six assists. Exum chipped in 15 points, Crowder added 12, and Korver contributed 10.
The Jazz improved to 17-18 on the season, while Portland dropped to 19-15.
from Nettech News http://bit.ly/2GGeUtW
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