Trail Blazers at Jazz
The Utah Jazz are fresh off consecutive resounding road wins as they
play at home on Wednesday for the first time this season. The improving
Jazz host the Portland Trail Blazers, a team trying to discover its
bearings after an offseason exodus that left the team with four new
starters.
Point guard Damian Lillard is the lone returning starter among the Trail Blazers and he scored a season-best 34 points and added seven assists in Monday's road victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves. "I know some people were questioning about whether he had to strike a balance or not," Blazers coach Terry Stotts said afterward. "But he's the ultimate competitor, and he carried the team." The Jazz went 2-1 on a season-opening round trip and concluded it with wins of 28 points over Philadelphia and 21 over Indiana on back-to-back nights. Utah is waiting on small forward Gordon Hayward to find his shot as he is averaging just 12 points and shooting 35.3 percent from the floor.
TV: 9 p.m. ET, KGW (Portland), ROOT (Utah)
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (2-2): Portland is the place of opportunity this season, and one player looking to carve himself out a role is journeyman power forward Ed Davis. The 26-year-old is with his fourth NBA team and grabbed 11 rebounds in three of the first four games, and impressed Lillard with his late-game defense and hustle in the victory over Minnesota. “He just kept pressure on them. They were coming down the lane and he was contesting shots and they were coming up short,” Lillard told reporters. “Just coming in there aggressive for rebounds. He was getting rebounds in traffic, he was changing shots and he was blocking shots.”
ABOUT THE JAZZ (2-1): Power forward Derrick Favors is off to a splendid start and is averaging 21.3 points, 8.3 rebounds and 2.3 steals. Utah has been waiting for the 24-year-old to take a step upward and this just might be the season it happens. "I've been working on my game for five years now," Favors told reporters. "So it's kind of satisfying for me to see my hard work paying off. But overall, I'm still not satisfied."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The teams split last season's four meetings.
2. New Portland starting SG C.J. McCollum is averaging 21.5 points - largely due to the career-best 37 points in the season opener against New Orleans.
3. Utah SG Rodney Hood has scored 17 points in each of the past two games.