PORTLAND — Three thoughts on the Jazz's 101-86 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. Damian Lillard scored 59. How?

Damian Lillard scored 59 points on the Jazz tonight, which is an astonishing total. He was really Portland's only consistent threat: no other Blazer had more than 12 points, and the rest of the Blazers shot 19-of-57.

To be clear, Lillard was very, very good Saturday night, making shots from all over the floor. But I think it's also true that the Jazz made things very easy for Lillard, especially early in the game when he scored 26 points in the first quarter.

So in order to find out what happened, I went back and looked at all of Lillard's points Saturday night to try to figure out what broke down. Both Dante Exum and Shelvin Mack struggled a ton against Lillard, and they weren't all forced errors.

Sometimes, the Jazz let one of the best shooting point guards in the league get an easy look from three by going under the screen.

Videos! Here's Dante Exum going under a screen on Lillard so he can shoot an easy 3. pic.twitter.com/ozOOJg7Wui — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) April 9, 2017

> Here's Shelvin Mack doing the same thing. Is it the Reagan era again, cause the Fairness Doctrine is back! [pic.twitter.com/yVWGKCsLrA](https://t.co/yVWGKCsLrA) > > — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) [April 9, 2017](https://twitter.com/andyblarsen/status/850957355730690048)

These plays are almost mirror images of each other. Lillard goes to the left side of the floor, pretends he's waiting for a screen, and instead just straight-line drives to the hoop for easy layups.

Shelvin just gets blown by for an easy layup here, because he's expecting a screen: pic.twitter.com/vkG2HGfBB4 — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) April 9, 2017

> But here's Dante getting blown by too: [pic.twitter.com/E0sEyANzGd](https://t.co/E0sEyANzGd) > > — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) [April 9, 2017](https://twitter.com/andyblarsen/status/850957895059423233)

Here, Joe Ingles gets switched onto Lillard, and kind of forgets he exists as he kinda, sorta, not really helps on Vonleh.

It's not just PGs getting in on the action. This Jingles "help" losing Lillard in the corner probably wasn't a good idea. pic.twitter.com/WHdoGusUKY — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) April 9, 2017

I don't know really why he tried to do this, but here's Mack trying to steal the ball 30 feet from the basket, but mostly just letting Lillard get an easy layup.

But here's Shelvin playing too high in semi-transition and just getting beaten so easily: pic.twitter.com/AOhvsl26KF — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) April 9, 2017

And this one's more subtle, but here Mack calls for a switch when he probably doesn't need to. With Ingles trailing McCollum, his assignment, it's impossible for him to get his momentum back towards Lillard in time to cover the three. Mack just needs to take ownership of Lillard, but I get why he didn't want to.

And finally, Shelvin puts Jingles in an impossible spot here by calling for a switch when Joe is going the other way: pic.twitter.com/vYMRFjulge — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) April 9, 2017

The only Jazz point guard who had success guarding Lillard was Raul Neto, and the difference between his defensive effort was like night and day compared to the other Jazz point guards. Unfortunately, he sprained his ankle badly early in the third quarter, and had to leave the game. After that, the Jazz didn't have a chance.

It's hard to blame the roster construction for this one: the Jazz have two good defensive point guards, and both were hurt tonight. But I'm not sure we've ever seen worse games from Exum and Mack.

Exum was horrendous offensively; he shot 0-4 tonight. The Blazers went under every screen and played six feet off of him, which ruined much of what the Jazz were trying to do offensively. Unable to shoot, Exum tried to attack, but with all of that extra space, his defenders had time to react. That meant he lept, got himself up in the air without anything to do, and turned the ball over. That's everything that the coaches have told him not to do, and his 14 minutes of playing time were deserved.

Mack had two really ugly turnovers himself, and, well, you saw the defense above. He was unplayably bad, except that the Jazz had no other good point guards. So naturally, he played 27 minutes.

They miss George Hill badly. Hill has struggled defensively after all of his injuries this season, but he would have done a much better job than either of the Jazz's other options after Neto went down. As Rudy Gobert said after the game, "I mean, it's pretty obvious. We need him 100 percent."

With a capable point guard, I think the Jazz might have won this game. After all, limit Lillard, and protect the ball offensively, they might have a chance. But with that group as they played tonight? It was ugly.

2. Joe Johnson's 20,000 points

Joe Johnson became the 42nd player in NBA history to score 20,000 points Saturday night. To use a mathematical expression, that is so many points.

It's kind of incredible the reverence fellow Jazz players and coaches have for Johnson. Obviously, there's the yoga stuff: he takes a 6 a.m. yoga class before every game. But beyond the early-morning classes, he works really hard in the weight room to keep his body in peak condition. The results show on the floor, and he's been one of the Jazz's most consistent contributors.

"That's amazing, the career that he's had. You only hear the greatest players of all time get to that mark. Much respect to him and his career," Rodney Hood said. "Down the line, I want to do some of the things he did. He's a guy I try to model my career after, on the court and off the court. Him and I have been talking about that."

As for Johnson himself, he was typically understated. "You know what, my career has been fairly decent," he started.

"This is obviously a great accomplishment, and it's a tribute to all of the guys I played with over the years and longevity," Johnson's comment continued, once we laughed about the above. "I'm just taking care of my body."

"For me, I didn't come into this league thinking 'Oh, I'm going to get 20,000 points. The fact that I made is an accomplishment, but I just wanted to stick. I didn't know what I was going to be, a great scorer or a playmaker or whatever, but I knew I could play in this league and help somebody out. Over these last 16 years, I've done whatever I could to hang in there."

Well, he's done more than just hang in there: he's been one of the best scorers in NBA history.

3. 4th seed looking bleak

The Jazz got another piece of bad news Saturday: the Clippers defeated the Spurs in San Antonio. That win, coupled with the Jazz loss, pushed the Clippers equal with the Jazz in the standings, and the Clippers have the tiebreaker.

Both teams have two games remaining. The Jazz play in Golden State Monday and at home against the Spurs Wednesday. On the other hand, the Clippers have the Houston Rockets at home Monday, and Sacramento on Wednesday.

The Clippers' schedule is undeniably easier. The Rockets have nothing left to play for, and they're locked into the three seed. They're the kind of team that can make a bunch of threes and win even if they're not trying that hard, but you'd have to say that the Clippers are favored to win that game. Sacramento, at this point of the season, is a pushover opponent for L.A.

Meanwhile, the Jazz play the two best teams in the NBA, and while both of them have their seeds locked up as well, they both have some goals left for the regular season. The Warriors want to play Kevin Durant and work him back into their lineup, and get some continuity going into the playoffs. And after the Spurs' loss Saturday night, head coach Gregg Popovich vowed to play his players for the last two games because of the poor performances late in the season.

So while it's certainly still plausible that the Jazz win one more game than the Clippers do between now and Thursday, it looks very unlikely. In other words, it looks like the Jazz will start out on the road in Los Angeles against the Clippers next Saturday or Sunday.

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