Sharp Shooting Blazers Bury Jazz, Damian Lillard Scores 60
Jan 25, 2023, 11:01 PM | Updated: Jul 12, 2023, 2:07 pm
SALT LAKE CITY – Damian Lillard scored 60 points as the Portland Trail Blazers put on an impressive shooting display in their 134-124 win over the Utah Jazz.
Lillard knocked down an outstanding 21-29 field goal attempts including 9-15 from the three-point line.
Lauri Markkanen led the Jazz with 24 points. With the loss, the Jazz fell to 25-26 on the season, and sit a half-game ahead of Portland, Golden State, and Oklahoma City who are tied for the 10th seed in the West.
Trail Blazers Catch Fire Over Final 36 Minutes
After a difficult 9-26 shooting start to open the game, the Trail Blazers dialed in shooting the ball in the second, third, and fourth quarters.
Portland quickly erased a 12 point Jazz lead in the second quarter by scoring 47 points behind 11 made threes on just 14 attempts.
“What started out as a very focused detailed game for us kind of fell apart in the second quarter from a defensive standpoint,” Will Hardy said. “Some of that is mental errors, some of that is they want to 11-14 from three in that quarter, which is outstanding.”
Damian Lillard scored a season-high 60 points as the @trailblazers downed the @utahjazz 134-124. #TakeNote https://t.co/HslY6pX7rt
— KSL Sports (@kslsports) January 26, 2023
After the tremendous second quarter, the Trail Blazers never slowed down.
In the third, Portland scored 36 points on 14-21 shooting, despite connecting on just 3-8 three-pointers.
To close the game, the Trail Blazers scored 32 points on an efficient 12-20 shooting.
In total, the Trail Blazers shot 42-63 (66 percent) and 16-27 (59 percent) from three over the final 36 minutes of the game to crush the Jazz.
Lillard fueled the Blazers’ impressive shooting scoring 41 of his 60 points in the second and third quarters on 14-18 shooting including 8-11 from three.
“We were almost double-teaming him the entire game and he found a way to go away from the double, or split to double,” Hardy said. “So I just don’t think we were very detailed in our execution.”
Markkanen Joins Hall Of Fame Jazz Company
Markkanen scored 24 points to lead the Jazz, marking his 17th consecutive game with at least 20 points.
With his performance against Portland, Markkanen became just the fourth player in Jazz history to record 17 straight 20-point performances, breaking a two-way tie with All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell.
After Wednesday’s outing, Markkanen joined Hall of Famers Karl Malone, Adrian Dantley, and “Pistol” Pete Maravich as the only four players in Jazz history to score 20 points in 17 straight outings.
another 20+ performance in the books for Finland’s finest 💛#PerformanceLeader | @UofUHealth pic.twitter.com/TC0YpyPYmc
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) January 26, 2023
Malone owns the top six longest streaks for the Jazz scoring 20 or more, including a run of 45 games over the 1988-89 and 1989-90 seasons.
Dantley’s best stretch came when he scored at least 20 in 23 consecutive games, while Maravich did it 19 straight times.
Markkanen could pass Maravich with three more 20 point games as the Jazz host the Dallas Mavericks, Toronto Raptors, and Atlanta Hawks at Vivint Arena over the next week.
Utah Jazz Next Broadcast
The Utah Jazz will host the Dallas Mavericks at 7 pm MT Saturday night in Salt Lake City. The game will be televised on AT&T SportsNet and can be heard on 97.5 The KSL Sports Zone. It can also be streamed on DirecTV Stream and FuboTV.
Ben Anderson is the Utah Jazz insider for KSL Sports and the co-host of Jake and Ben from 10-12p with Jake Scott on 97.5 The KSL Sports Zone. Find Ben on Twitter at @BensHoops or on Instagram @BensHoops.
