Lauri Markkanen-less Utah Jazz beat Blazers by 42 – Deseret News

PORTLAND — The Utah Jazz absolutely beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 141-99, at the Moda Center on Friday night, ending a five-game losing streak.

Before we get into the future implications of this game, first some light housekeeping.

Lauri Markkanen was a late scratch on Friday. Shortly before taking the court for his pregame warmups, Markkanen said he felt a little tightness in his lower back, just as it felt before the Jazz played the Sacramento Kings on Oct. 29.

After that game, Markkanen missed three games due to lower back spasms.

“It was brought to my attention right before he went out to warm up that maybe something was going on,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said. “He was going to go out and really try to test it and push it and meet with the medical team. So after his warmups and talks, we just decided it was best to sit him out tonight.”

Markkanen hopes taking it easy on Friday will give him a better chance to play Sunday when the team is in Sacramento, the final game of this road trip.

The other piece of housekeeping is that rookie Kyle Filipowski has been cleared to play. He was sent over to play with the Salt Lake City Stars on Friday night in Los Angeles to get a ramp-up game under his belt before rejoining the Jazz after missing seven straight games due to a right ankle sprain and inflammation in lower left leg.

In the Stars’ win over the South Bay Lakers, Filipowski had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Hardy said the plan is for Filipowski to travel to Sacramento to rejoin the Jazz and that he is expected to play on Sunday.

Now for the Jazz’s game. Honestly, the Trail Blazers are really, really bad. They have been without Donovan Clingan and Toumani Camara picked up a foot injury early in the game on Friday, so it’s not like they were at full strength.

Still, they probably shouldn’t be so bad that they get blown out by 42 points by the Jazz. But on a night when the Jazz, even without Markkanen, take care of the ball, shoot 43% from 3-point land and constantly run in transition, they are fully capable of beating the bad teams.

That said, the Blazers are one of the teams at the bottom of the standings (8-15) along with the Jazz (5-17), New Orleans Pelicans (5-18), Washington Wizards (2-18). ), Charlotte Hornets (6-16) and Philadelphia 76ers (6-15).

Make no mistake, the Jazz brass are looking beyond this season and hoping for good luck on NBA lottery night. That means piling up losses is important, and the losses against the other teams at the bottom of the standings are even more important because they could come into play should there be a tiebreaker situation at the end of the season.

Right now, the Jazz are clearly on track to lose more games than the Blazers, but if Friday’s performance from the Portland squad is any indication of what’s to come the rest of this season, a tiebreaker for better lottery positioning could end up being become critical.

From a game standpoint, there were some things to be really happy about Friday night, like Keyonte George’s ball pressure and overall defensive effort, the Jazz had just 14 turnovers and Walker Kessler finished with an impressive 13 points, 17 rebounds and five blocks.

This is the kind of thing you love to see as these players continue to develop, but if you’re someone who covets a player like Cooper Flagg, you just wish these kinds of performances would happen during a loss instead of an absolute blowout against a lottery contender.