This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Portland, Ore. • Tuesday night's season-opener for the Utah Jazz featured a glimpse of Rodney Hood's scoring ability. It showed that Joe Johnson — who shot horridly in the preseason — is not washed up. It featured a great third quarter by the team, and a clue of what the Jazz can be when its star players return from their various injuries.
What it didn't feature was a win.
Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum made sure of that, putting Portland on their individual backs and carrying the Trail Blazers to a 113-104 win before a sold out crowd at the Moda Center.
The difference for Portland was the last five minutes, when the Blazers erased an eight-point deficit and put the game away in the waning possessions. As a result, the Jazz lost their third season opener under Quin Snyder in as many tries.
"I think we really competed," Snyder said. "Damian Lillard is a heck of a player, and we wanted to try to control what we could, but we didn't always do that. Without all of our guys, our margin for error isn't as big, but we battled. Hats off to Portland. They made the big plays when needed."
When Dante Exum muscled through two defenders for a lay-up, the Jazz held an 85-77 lead with 11 minutes remaining, and victory seemed possible. But the Blazers second unit went on an 8-0 run and set the stage for Lillard and his heroics.
Lillard led the way with a game-high 39 points, adding nine rebounds and six assists. Coming off screens, if Rudy Gobert or another big man stepped out, Lillard went by him for lay-ups. If the Jazz big men didn't step up, Lillard torched Utah's defense from beyond the 3-point line.
Portland shot 12 of 18 from beyond the arc, consistently making the Jazz pay for leaving shooters open. Eventually, the barrage was more than what Utah could handle.
"It seemed like we just couldn't get that key stop," Johnson said. "It was frustrating, because we got whatever we wanted offensively, it felt like. But whenever we needed a stop, we just couldn't get it."
Johnson led the Jazz with 29 points, 27 in the second half. Rodney Hood scored 26, but on this night the Jazz needed to win the game on the defensive end, and couldn't do so.
Johnson's three-point play gave the Jazz a 102-99 lead with 4:24 remaining, but that was their final advantage. Portland proceeded to score the next 10 points, culminating with a Lillard 3 from 24 feet to give the Blazers a 109-102 advantage with 1:02 remaining.
From there, the Jazz could do nothing but foul and try to extend the game.
"They took off at the end," Hood said. "They hit a couple of really tough shots, and we missed some shots. Their guards got going, and Noah Vonleh made some big plays. It was tough, we played well. But we couldn't get it done."
Gobert grabbed 14 rebounds to go along with 12 points. George Hill scored 19 points, but the Jazz bench scored only 16 points combined.
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Storylines
R Utah loses its third consecutive season opener under Quin Snyder.
• Utah shoots 8 of 24 from 3-point range.
• Portland guards Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum combine for 64 points.