The Trail Blazers visit the red-hot Jazz on Monday and it’s the perfect time to beat them and make a statement.
These two teams met for the first time on December 21 and the Jazz crushed the Trail Blazers 120-90. It was Portland’s worst home loss in 14 years, despite Donovan Mitchell scoring just three points on 1 of 10 shooting in 28 minutes for Utah. Damian Lillard finished with 19 points to lead the Trail Blazers, but the team shot just 40.2 percent from the field (35-for-87) and 31.3 percent from 3-point range (10-for-32). Their 14 turnovers were also costly as the Jazz scored 21 points off them.
Ricky Rubio had a monster game to lead the Jazz with 24 points and eight assists while Kyle Korver and Jae Crowder scored 18 and 16 points respectively and combined to shoot 7-for-14 from 3-point range.
Rubio won’t play on Monday. With Rubio, Dante Exum, and Raul Neto out for the last few games, Donovan Mitchell has taken over at point guard and he’s been playing at a high-level, averaging 29.4 points, 5.4 assists, and 3.8 rebounds on 50.0 percent shooting in 33.6 minutes over his last five games. Mitchell will run the point on Monday and his matchup with Damian Lillard will be one of the keys to this game for the Trail Blazers.
The teams played again on Christmas Day. This time in Utah and after leading by 12 at halftime, the Jazz never looked back and pulled away for a 117-96 win. Lillard and Mitchell did their part. Lillard led the Trail Blazers with 20 points while Mitchell finished with 19 for the Jazz, but the difference in the game was that Utah’s supporting cast stepped up, with six players besides Mitchell scoring in double figures. Meanwhile, all of Portland’s players except Lillard scored 12 points or less. CJ McCollum was particularly quiet, putting up just 11 points on 4 of 11 shooting.
The Jazz are playing their best basketball of the season, winning their last six games while the Trail Blazers are coming off back-to-back home wins against the Cavaliers and Pelicans, so this should be a fun contest to watch. Mitchell and Lillard will run their respective offenses and put up decent numbers and if the Trail Blazers want to win this game their bench has to step up and I’m particularly interested in what Jake Layman can do.
Jake Layman scores 20 points in the second quarter!pic.twitter.com/NYrl5x1sCa
— The Sporting News (@sportingnews) January 19, 2019
Layman struggled in the first two meetings against the Jazz, putting up just three points (all from the free-throw line) in six minutes on December 21 and zero points while attempting just one shot in three minutes on December 25. However, he can be an X-factor on Monday; he’s averaging 14.6 points in his last five games, shooting 62.0 percent from the field and 42.1 percent from beyond the arc in 22.2 minutes. He exploded against the Cavaliers and Pelicans with 18 and 20 points respectively.
Layman’s 20 points with four 3-pointers in 10 minutes were a big part of last night’s 128-112 win against the Pelicans and another burst like that can make a difference against the Jazz.
Layman is developing into the kind of player the Trail Blazers need and him catching fire on Monday would be huge against a Jazz team that has had Portland’s number this season.