SALT LAKE CITY — Three thoughts on the Jazz's poor opening night 108-82 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers.

1. Jazz defense struggled badly for first time this season

The stats are ugly. The Jazz gave up 111 points per 100 possessions to the Blazers, allowing them to shoot 11 for 25 from three-point land and 30-52 from inside the arc. While they forced 19 turnovers, the shooting percentage they allowed was just too much to answer. I mean, look at Portland's shot chart:

The question I have: was this bad defense by the Jazz, or did Portland's incredibly talented guards just make hard shots over extended Jazz defense?

It's hard to say. For one, the Blazers getting 30 shots from within 3 feet isn't a good sign. League average is giving up 28 percent of shots within the restricted area, that would have meant 21 shots from there, not 30. Furthermore, because of Gobert and Favors, the Jazz usually do better than average at that statistic, but not tonight. So at the very least, the Jazz's interior defense was off of its game tonight.

The transition defense wasn't great either. The Jazz did a good job after giving up turnovers, allowing only 5 points from the Blazers on 9 turnovers. But despite that, they gave up 12 fast break points to the Blazers. In other words, the Jazz's defense sometimes didn't get back against made or missed shots, which isn't a good sign.

Another bad sign: the Jazz's defense didn't improve with Lillard off the court. As mentioned above, the Jazz allowed 111 points per 100 possessions overall. They also allowed 111 points per 100 possessions when Lillard was on and off the court. In other words, the Jazz struggled even against the Allen Crabbes and Mo Harklesses of the world.

Yes, the Blazers guards made some tough shots, see point three. But the Jazz's defense just didn't execute tonight.

2. But good news! The defense wasn't the only thing that struggled: so did the offense!

If the defense was feeling at blame after the above, don't fret: the Jazz's offense was equally bad against the Blazers.

Just as on the defensive end, the Jazz controlled the turnover battle, allowing just 9.

But overall, the Jazz made only 33 of 88 of their baskets, including just 5 of 24 three-point attempts. Maybe the worst part: even on their shots that were uncontested, the Jazz shot just 37% from the field, 17 of 46. That won't do.

Probably as a result of the poor shooting, the Jazz picked up only 9 assists on the night. That's the worst performance in at least 30 years for the Jazz, though not all time: in a game in 1975, the New Orleans Jazz only picked up 5 assists. But, still: John Stockton had 857 games when he had more than 9 assists by himself.

The irony here is that the Jazz actually passed the ball 116 more times than the Blazers did, who were much more successful with ball-handler penetration and scoring rather than set up plays with multiple passes.

Jazz coach Quin Snyder blamed the defense for the bad offense, saying "I don't think the offense was our issue. We never got any momentum off our defense. ... We are not going to be successful if we don't come out and guard. We generate offense off our defense."

It's true, with the Jazz's current personnel, the Jazz are going to have to generate a lot of transition offense in order to be a good offensive team. But the Jazz still will need more playmaking from their players in the half court to be a capable team. 0 assists from Gordon Hayward, Raul Neto, Trey Burke, and only one from Alec Burks isn't going to get it done.

So much of the Jazz's half court offense relied on Gordon Hayward last year, and so far, Hayward hasn't stepped up to fill that role this season. He's shot only 35 percent from the field, 30 percent from three, and 68 percent from the line. Derrick Favors had been able to bail the Jazz's offense out to respectability in the first three games, but tonight, saddled with foul trouble and illness, he couldn't do anything about it.

3. Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum are so, so good

The Blazers' guard lineup of Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum are very, very talented. They combined for 62 points tonight, uncluding some incredible three point shots from way, way beyond the arc that are just impossible to guard.

Lillard, the Weber State product, is the more famous of the two, and just the threat of his play made the Jazz guard him with multiple defenders and looks, none of which worked. He's so difficult to guard because of his jump shot, one of the best in the league, that can punish defenders no matter how good of defense is being played on him. I thought Trey Burke played the best D on Lillard, but his limited size meant that Lillard was making the shots anyway. Hood, Millsap, and Burks all had their opportunities with him as well.

McCollum, though, was maybe even better tonight. He scored 27 points on only 13 shots, which is a pretty impressive number of points per shot attempt, obviously. He hit 5 of 6 of his contested looks, and 5 of 7 of his open ones.

Can you imagine if these rosters would merge? The Jlazers (name could use improvement) would dominate the league for years to come. Where the Jazz's strength is their frontcourt, Hayward, Favors, Gobert; the Blazers backcourt of Lillard and McCollum is one of the 5 best in the league. The merged team would be so good for so long.

One can only dream.

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