The Triple Team: 3 thoughts on Jazz vs. Trail Blazers


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PORTLAND — Three thoughts on the Jazz's 113-104 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. Jazz newcomers define the game

Due to the injuries to Gordon Hayward and Derrick Favors, the Jazz had to start all three of their newcomers: George Hill, Joe Johnson, and Boris Diaw. Those three players had their fingerprints all over the game, in both good and bad ways.

We'll start with George Hill, who was maybe the Jazz's most solid player throughout the game. The way the Jazz's offense ran with Hill in was wildly different than without him: with Hill, the Jazz scored 122 points per 100 possessions, without Hill, they scored 54 points per 100 possessions.

Head coach Quin Snyder noted the difference too. "Our bench has to step up. When our starters were in there, I thought we were able to score. We've just got to make up for anything with the guys off the bench by being solid defensively and not giving up easy baskets."

Hill wisely attacked when he needed to, and wisely delegated to Johnson when he was cooking. The biggest blemish was Hill's two missed open shots with about three minutes left to go, shots that would have extended the Jazz's lead to six. Instead, the Blazers took over.

Joe Johnson was absurdly good. Before the game, I was having legitimate conversations with people about whether or not Johnson was washed up: after all, it wouldn't be unprecedented that a 35 year old player suddenly lost his skills. He shot 32 percent in preseason and 18 percent from three, and wasn't adding much from a secondary skill point of view.

And then tonight's game happened. Johnson scored 29 points (more than his season high of 28 last year) on 12-16 shooting, including 3-4 3-point shooting. 27 of those points came in the second half, where he was largely impossible to defend. Everything was so smooth: the mid-range game, getting open for three, bullying players in the post. Finally, the Blazers started to front him in the post and shade so much towards Johnson that the Jazz had to go away from him a little bit in the end. Still, if he can play that well in a limited role once Hayward comes back (imagine those skills against bench units!), he'll be an incredibly valuable asset.

The Jazz's third newcomer, Boris Diaw, was terrible tonight. He went 1-8 for the game. His big skill, passing, was a non-factor: Diaw got zero assists, zero secondary assists, and zero free throw assists. He gave up too much on the defensive end, then fouled when he got beat. Naturally, the Blazers started to target him. That he played so much in the fourth quarter (11:33) counts as a mistake, in my book. He played well enough in the preseason that I understand what Snyder was going for, but it just didn't work.

2. Some crazy statistical feats

I may have lied above: what really defined the game was the play of Damian Lillard, who scored 16 points in the fourth quarter and 39 overall on only 20 shots for the game. The Jazz defended him pretty well, actually, nearly all game long, but he made some incredibly difficult shots from inside over Rudy Gobert and from way, way deep outside. He's a special player.

But even beyond Lillard, the Blazers were insane from 3-point range. Overall, they shot 13 of 19 from beyond the arc. That's 68.4 percent, which is their highest percentage in a game since 2013. On first glance, I thought the Jazz played pretty solid perimeter defense in the game. They did an especially good job of running the Blazers off the line to prevent 3-point shots from going up at all: 19 would have been the second-lowest total for Portland last season. But they just made nearly every one they did take.

There also wasn't a missed free throw by either team in the game! Portland made all 22 of their FTs, while the Jazz made all 16 of theirs. That's only the third game since 1964-65, when they started keeping free throw data, that both teams have made 100 percent of their free throws in a game.

Add all of those shot-making feats to Joe Johnson and Damian Lillard's hyper-efficient scoreline, and it didn't feel like a first game of the regular season at all: both of these teams were in mid-season form from the get go.

3. Rodney Hood's performance and dunk

Last season, Rodney Hood generally struggled a little bit when he wasn't on the floor with Gordon Hayward. Hood shot 39 percent when on the floor without Hayward, and was 15 percent overall less efficient while using 26 percent of Jazz offensive possessions. Without Hayward tonight, though, that wasn't the case: Hood scored 26 points on 9-17 shooting, with zero turnovers.

I thought Hood did a much better job of getting inside than he did last season in these situations: taking three layups and getting to the line five times (last year, he averaged about half of those numbers per game). And then, he showed off something I've never seen from him before: incredible dunking ability.

Okay, one more view, just for fun:

I think we'd all love to see more of this from Rodney Hood #takenotepic.twitter.com/dateaweP7p — Jeremiah Jensen (@JJSportsBeat) October 26, 2016

Hood's efficiency was limited last season because of his reluctance to get inside and go to the line. If he can get closer more often this season, he's going to take a huge step forward from a statistical (and a winning!) point of view. ![](https://beacon.deseretconnect.com/beacon.gif?cid=453859&pid=4)

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