January 30, 2012; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Portland Trail Blazers power forward LaMarcus Aldridge (12) is defended by Utah Jazz power forward Paul Millsap (24) during the second half at EnergySolutions Arena. The Jazz defeated the Trail Blazers 93-89. Mandatory Credit: Russ Isabella-US PRESSWIRE

The way you react to Portland’s most recent road loss might tell you a little something about where you stand with this current Blazer team or any of the Blazer teams in the recent past.

If you’re disgusted because Portland dropped another winnable game by turning the ball over at key moments, not closing out quarters, and not stepping on the gas when a double-digit victory was well in sight, you’re probably the type of fan that thinks a 50-win season should be a 55-win season, and the head coach should be fired every year the team doesn’t make the Conference Finals.

If you’re pumped that the Blazers went into an overly hostile environment, gave a tough Jazz team a real run for their money, and but for some poor outside shooting and an inopportune injury to Nicolas Batum would have come out with one of their bigger road wins of the season, you’re probably the type of fan that thinks a first round exit three years in a row is a great stretch for the franchise.

If you’re neither shocked nor surprised that Portland put together 30+ plus minutes of winning basketball, outplayed a good team for stretches, then got badly outplayed on the way to a “season defining” win for their opponent, then you are probably like me. Meaning, you have no idea what to make of this team.

At times Monday night, Portland looked crisp on offense, made the extra pass to get the ball to the open guy, attacked the rim, and didn’t turn the ball over. During those moments, the Blazers were clearly the better team, and Utah had to do everything in their power just to stay in the game.

At other times, Portland couldn’t buy a bucket, movement stalled entirely, the ball was bouncing off guys’ feet. During those moments, not only did the Blazers’ offense completely disappear, their defense went too. When that happened it was all Jazz, and Portland played like they wanted no part of EnergySolutions Arena, or a road win anywhere.

There’s not a whole lot I can think of to say at this point, except that the Blazers are in danger of finishing at .500 if they don’t figure out how to win on the road. During the six-game road trip that recently ended, the Blazers came out slow some nights, and some nights finished poorly. Monday, Portland started fine, and picked up a bit of speed in the second and third quarters–leading by 10 on a couple of occasions during those periods–but when Utah made the run everybody knew was coming, the Blazers just didn’t have a response.

Between the 9:10 and 3:29 marks in the fourth quarter, Portland didn’t score a single point. Over that span, the Jazz went from down five to up six. During that stretch nobody in a Blazer jersey could hit anything, and on top of that Portland was giving up lay-ups and offensive rebounds, and was getting denied at the rim. That late in the game, the Blazers just couldn’t afford to stop showing up.

There is something Portland could have done, that might have made a difference: attack the basket. The Blazers have always had a tendency to do the counter-intuitive thing and start jacking up more jump shots as their team shooting percentage nosedives. If Portland had stopped settling for jump shots, and gone at the rim, they might have been able get better looks, and they might have been able to get to the foul line. Monday night, the Blazers shot 13 free throws. The Jazz shot 38. Utah’s +16 from the charity stripe was the final difference four times over.

Portland has good foul shooters, but they need to get to the line to prove it. Plus, getting free throws can stall an opponent’s run, and can help kick-start an offense that has fallen flat. Going forward, the Blazers need to focus on getting shots inside, getting to the rim, and getting to the foul line.

OK, so that was the game. Now to address the only thing anybody is going to remember about Monday night. With 19 seconds left in the fourth quarter and Portland trailing by two, Nicolas Batum–the only Blazer to do ANYTHING in the fourth quarter–took a hand-off from LaMarcus Aldridge off an in-bounds play, turned the corner, appeared to jam his knee, and collapsed to the deck.

He lost the ball, and basically the game, but right now that’s of little importance. Nic wasn’t extended by Portland last week, but he’s still a very very important piece of this franchise. An injury to Batum, one that means he’s going to miss some time (or GASP a season) is not something anybody wants to see, and WILL be a huge blow to this team’s potential. As of right now, the Trail Blazers’ official tweeter feed says he will undergo an MRI back home in Portland on Tuesday. I’m sure as soon as they know the prognosis, we’ll know it too. If it’s any consolation, Nic seemed to be able to walk himself into the locker room.

The word out of Utah is that Portland gave this game away. At some point, though, they really are going to have to figure out how not to give games like this away. Portland is back at the Rose Garden on Wednesday against the Charlotte Bobcats. The Blazers have been just as good at home as they’ve been bad on the road, which, in my opinion, doesn’t make the road losses any less frustrating.

Couple of things:

• Apparently the people in Utah are pushing hard to get Paul Millsap into the All-Star Game. I’m not against Millsap getting into the All-Star Game, but I do think that if he’s in LA is definitely in. Monday’s national highlight packages will no doubt feature Millsap’s top of the key J with 1:31 left to play that gave Utah a five-point lead, but in the third quarter, it was LaMarcus Aldridge producing the mid-range jumper highlights. LA finished with 25 points to lead all scorers, hitting 11-0f-20 from the field. All-Star numbers.
• The big stat that is going to stand out in this one, bigger than the disparity in free throws, will be Portland’s 5-of-20 from three. The Blazers need to make threes if they are going to take 20 of them. Utah missed a bunch of threes too, but nine possessions that ended in missed threes is better than 15. Also, not being confident in the three ball probably led to Wesley Matthews not taking an open three with Portland down three with five seconds left. Wesley needs to at the very least take that shot.
• One more big stat: 18 offensive rebounds for the Jazz. Utah got their last offensive rebound on a missed free throw with the lead at only two. Portland didn’t have Marcus Camby in because they had no timeouts–all part of the last 20 seconds that produced basically nothing for the Blazers–but that’s only kind of an excuse for losing an offensive board to Gordon Hayward.
• Minutes Watch: 8:02 for Craig Smith. Rhino’s minutes have been dwindling. I think he needs to stay in the rotation, though probably not at the expense of LaMarcus’s minutes, because he does seem to be one of the few guys who looks to attack the basket before shooting the mid-range jumper.
• Standings Watch: According to Yahoo (which sometimes differs some from NBA.com) Portland came into Monday’s game in 7th, behind Houston at 6 and Utah at 5, and ahead of the Lakers in 8th and San Antonio in 9th. Sunday the Lakers win; Monday night Houston loses, Portland loses, San Antonio wins. Monday night (with Clippers/OKC in progress) Portland falls to 8, the Lakers leap to 7, San Antonio and Houston swap the 6 and 9 positions.

Box Score

Standings

Purple and Blues

email me: mike.acker1@gmail.com

Twitter: @mikeacker | @ripcityproject

Nicolas Batum (88) is helped off the court after injuring his leg during the second half. Credit: Russ Isabella-US PRESSWIRE

Last season Nicolas Batum turned in one of the best plays of the year at home against the Utah Jazz. Hopefully he'll do it again to start 2011-12. Photo courtesy of OregonLive.

Blazers: 0-0

Jazz: 0-0

Game Details: Rose Garden, Portland, OR. 7:00 PM. TV: CSNW. Radio: KXTG (750 AM).

Projected Portland Starting Lineup: PG Raymond Felton (#5, 6’1”, North Carolina), SG Wesley Matthews (#2, 6’5″, Marquette), SF Nicolas Batum (#88, 6’8”, France), PF Gerald Wallace (#3, 6’7″, Alabama), C Marcus Camby (#23, 6’11″, UMass)

Projected Utah Starting Lineup: PG Devin Harris (#5, 6’3”, Wisconsin), SG Raja Bell (#19, 6’5”, Florida International), SF C.J. Miles (#34, 6’6”, Skyline High School Dallas, TX), PF Paul Millsap (#24, 6’8”, Louisiana Tech), C Al Jefferson (#25 6’10”, Prentiss High School Mississippi)

Whether you like it or not, the preseason is here, and don’t blink,  because if you do I guarantee you’ll miss it. Portland plays their first of a home-and-home mini-preseason tonight at the Rose Garden against conference rival–and nearest non-California franchise–Utah Jazz. This should be interesting for a number of reasons, the top reason being that two pretend games before the real games start isn’t much time to iron out the kinks.

Utah underwent some major changes last year. Head coach Jerry Sloan, who had been roaming the Jazz sidelines before the parents of a few of the younger players in the NBA were born, stepped down prior to the departure of franchise point guard Deron Williams. Last season the Jazz finished with a 39-43 record and missed the Playoffs for the first time since 2005-06.

Utah’s in a weird place at the present moment. As one of the league’s more historically relevant franchises, it’s unlikely they’ll be a doormat in the West for very long, but as a small market team it’s going to be difficult for them to build through free agency. Right now guys like Paul Millsap, Al Jefferson, and Devin Harris are going to have to play at or above their best every night for the Jazz to be winners. Jefferson is a noted underachiever, Harris has never really reached his potential. Millsap is the odd man out, continually being mentioned as one of the league’s best and most consistent inside players.

After those three the Jazz roster gets thin in a hurry. C.J. Miles can kill a team–he’s done it to Portland–but those games don’t happen all that often, Raja Bell is mostly on the court for defense, second-year guys Derrick Favors and Gordon Hayward have the skills to be real players, but neither is there just yet. Mehmet Okur is coming off a season in which he played only 13 games. Josh Howard hardly played at all last year either.

Winning and losing in this first preseason game is pretty irrelevant, so here are a couple of things to watch for:

• Who plays and how much: Portland has trimmed their roster, so now we’re down to the guys that will be in uniform for most of the season plus probably Earl Barron. That means that as much as we want to see Jeff Foote in real game action, if you missed Fan Fest you missed your chance. It also means that this game might feature some of what will actually be seen in the regular season. But it may not. Two preseason games aren’t going to be enough to get into game-shape, that’s going to have to happen during the season. It’s also enough game time to get hurt. Expect Nate McMillan to play his starters at least a little (minus LaMarcus Aldridge who is still recovering), but my guess will be that some guys are going to get the luxury of not playing all that much. I’m hoping that Chris Johnson, Elliot Williams, and Nolan Smith get a lot of time. They’re the players that are going to need it the most. Plus a lot of minutes for CJ will basically be confirmation that he’s the last dude to make the team.
• Jamal Crawford: Neither Jamal Crawford nor Craig Smith played in the Fan Fest scrimmage. For the most part we know what Craig Smith is going to bring, a big body and hopefully a lot of rebounds. Crawford we know too, but his talents are a little less consistent. Hopefully he’ll come out scoring and he won’t stop. In 08-09 the first home preseason game was against the Kings. That night Rudy Fernandez and Greg Oden made their debuts. Crawford’s first night in black and red probably won’t be greeted with the same fanfare, but it should be good.
• What the game-ops folks do: The real festivities are most likely going to be on hold for December 26th’s regular season home opener. Having said that, we are coming off a lockout, and Portland needs to be on their A-game to get fans back in the seats. Fan Fest’s turnout wasn’t great. Probably that has to do with the fact that it wasn’t hyped months in advance as it often is, also Fan Fest is usually at the end of September, not the middle of December, and people are busy with holiday stuff. There’s a pretty good chance Monday will have a great crowd. Even if there isn’t, the Blazer game-ops guys should probably treat Monday’s game like a Playoff game, not a preseason game. It’s going to be a whole season of winning back fan support, it’s never to early to start.

email me: mike.acker1@gmail.com

Twitter: @mikeacker | @ripcityproject