This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Portland, Ore. • All that preseason progress? The talk of chemistry and improvement and a playoff push? Nowhere to be found inside the Rose Garden Arena on Monday night.
The Jazz trail the Trail Blazers 70-46 at halftime. Making matters worse is that it's a couple of guys the Jazz are very familiar with who are leading the way.
Rookie point guard Damian Lillard, who played collegiately at Weber State, has 14 points and three assists, while former Jazz guard Wesley Matthews added eight points. Blazers forward Nicolas Batum led all scorers in the half with 15 points.
Enes Kanter scored nine points for the Jazz in the half.
It's still preseason, so anything the Jazz do poorly, like all the things they did well in the first six exhibition games, can't be viewed as a harbinger of the upcoming regular season.
But they couldn't do anything right from the beginning Monday, when they were whistled for their first delay of game of the season after taking more than 90 seconds to report for tip-off.
The Jazz led 10-4 before the Blazers took over. They outscored the Jazz 37-16 the rest of the quarter, including a 3-pointer by Lillard before the buzzer.
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