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After shooting 6 of 19 from the field in Sunday's loss to the San Antonio Spurs, Gordon Hayward felt liberated in Tuesday's 106-87 win over the Portland Trail Blazers.

Instead of being smothered by Kawhi Leonard, Hayward was able to do his work against Moe Harkless and Evan Turner. Instead of the Spurs trapping him on pick and roll plays, Hayward found space against Portland's big men, who played in the paint to guard against lobs to Rudy Gobert.

The result? Hayward scored a game-high 30 points against the Blazers, slicing their defense and getting practically anything he wanted. It was a much-needed game for Hayward, who had been struggling with his shot lately.

"My teammates did a great job of setting me up," Hayward said. "Rudy did a great job of screening for me. Their bigs played back and that gave me a lot of space to operate. It got me going, and I got open looks all night. I got some layups, but it was really my teammates set me up."

The Jazz need Hayward to continue having nights like Tuesday, because his ability to score directly correlates to Utah's ability to win games. Hayward scored 30 points for the 12th time this season, the most by a Jazz player through 78 games since Karl Malone in the 2001-02 season. The Jazz are 8-4 in such games.

Hayward was efficient. He went 12 of 20 from the field and made four of his six 3-point attempts. Hayward grabbed four rebounds, handed out two assists and looked comfortable all night.

"It's great to have Gordon playing that way," Gobert said. "We need that from him. He was making shots, he was making plays for us."

Gobert's presence offensively has helped Hayward, as well as the rest of the Jazz. He has become an effective screener, and is so active rolling to the basket that he commands attention, especially now that he has shown the ability to finish.

Portland was without starting center Jusef Nurkic on Tuesday night. Without his size in the middle, the Blazers had little resistance to offer Gobert at the rim, so they shifted their defense to stop him from making the initial catch.

Hayward feasted on the attention Gobert was able to command.

"His man is kind of reluctant to leave him a little bit because they don't want him to get the lob," Jazz forward Joe Johnson said. "So all of us, we're able to get into the paint and make plays and get easy layups."

tjones@sltrib.com Twitter: @tribjazz