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Nurkic and Lillard put together a 39-point third quarter for their team as the visiting Trailblazers snapped Jazz's six-game winning streak and took an impressive 109-104 road victory in Utah. In a matchup between two surging NBA teams, Portland outperformed Utah in almost all aspects of the game to eventually come out on top.
The Portland Trailblazers have now won six of their last eight games and currently sit at the 4th spot out West with a 29-19 (0.604) win-loss record to their name. Dame and co. clinched their third straight win in a row as the team shot 50% from the floor and dropped an imposing 60 points in the paint.
On the other hand, the Utah Jazz's heartbreaking loss at home was just their second in nine games, as they seem to back on track after being pounded by the tough early-season schedule.
Their recent surge capped with their latest loss to Portland has them seated at the 8th position with a 26-22 (0.542) record, still 7.5 games below West's apex. They are next in line to face the formidable force in Denver Nuggets.
Let's dive into this encounter in Utah and demarcate some of the best and worst individual performances from the night.
Hit: Jusuf Nurkic
It was not even a week ago that the Bosnian Beast had recorded his first career triple in a matchup against the Cavaliers. Although he could not notch his second in this game, his impact across the floor was felt by the opponents throughout the 48 minutes of the game.
Against the Jazz who have displayed some of the toughest defences to break through in the past 10 games, Nurkic dropped 17 points in the third quarter alone and put his team in a position to win the game. He ended up scoring 22 points, along with eight boards, seven assists and tied his career-high with six blocks in the game.
"He was huge. They blocked a few of his shots but we just kept giving it to him in the paint and he figured it out. He got his timing down and getting into Rudy's body. He started rolling," Lillard said.
Gobert and Crowder tried to trash talk his way into making him fumble but the Portland center was unflinching from the word go,
"They started talking a little bit too much," Nurkic said. "But I'm too busy to have all those conversations."
He played for 32 minutes before being fouled out and shot a decent 8-of-17 from the field on the night.
Flop: Joe Ingles
The Australian has been utterly disappointing for the Jazz so far this season as he continues to shoot a career-low 36% from deep. Spending 37 minutes on the court against the Trailblazers, Ingles shot a miserable 1-of-7 from the field, which included an equally dull 0-of-3 shooting from long-range.
He had a negligible impact on the proceedings, finishing with just two points and six assists. The 31-year-old was the only starter to end the game in single-digit scoring as his team ran out of scoring options in a heartfelt loss in front of the home crowd.
Sadly, this was Joe's third game with a score of just 2 points in January alone thus far, as he has now scored merely 19 points in total in the last three games combined.
It's fair to say that Joe is undergoing a shooting slump of his own as he has managed to sink just three long-range shots across the last four games he has played for Utah.
Hit: Damian Lillard
With a 26-point outing in Utah, Dame has now scored 20 or more points in six consecutive games, rightfully averaging 26+ points per game this season so far.
He is shooting career-best numbers both from the field as well as from the distance this year, and put together a bunch of pivotal shots down the stretch against the Jazz in this one. Along with 26 points on 10-of-20 shooting, Dame chipped in eight boards and eight dimes as well to Portland's winning cause.
Lillard and his team have lost the last couple of encounters with the Jazz, and that wasn't lost on the Portland's All-star point guard,
"In the past they have affected us because we just know that Rudy Gobert is there and Derrick Favors is there and sometimes we sped up and sometimes we rushed it and missed shots," Lillard said. "But tonight we delivered the passes and focused on finishing no matter who was around."
It was the 10th time in the last twelve games that the Trailblazers finished with at least 25 assists in the game as a team, as Nurkic and Lillard consisted 15 between them.
Flop: Kyle Korver
With Utah on the upward curve now, they would need a reliable effort from their reserves throughout the second half of the season and Korver plays a huge role in spreading the floor with his range late in the game coming off the bench.
Just a couple of games ago, Korver had himself a nice three-game stretch when his team was winning and he was scoring in 15+ point numbers. But the previous matchup (against his former team, Cleveland) and this one have proven to be a mild rough patch evidently. He scored 7 and 6 points respectively, going as bad as 0-of-5 from deep against Portland in this loss.
Kyle Korver came off the bench for Utah and played 23 minutes in a game where his team shot a miserable 21% from the deep. This was Korver's sixth single-digit scoring performance this month alone.
Quin Snyder has managed to squeeze in a consistent amount of minutes for the veteran sharpshooter in Jazz games but in return, Kyle hasn't responded with comparable consistency in his scoring totals.
Guess the Lakers players!
