Too Many Road Games. Utah Outlasts Portland. 88-97

This young team looked completely exhausted last night. I heard an interview this morning with Kevin Pritchard talking about the effort of the team and how they had "played hard" which I don't disagree with, but they lacked enough energy to hang with a well-rested Utah Jazz squad. And guess what? They return home tonight for a back-to-back and what I'm calling the final leg of an 8 game road trip.

Quick Recap:

I missed most of the first half and it doesn't sound like I missed much. From what I could tell, the Blazers just couldn't get anything legitimate going at any point. With an 11 point half-time deficit, I didn't ever get the feeling that they would be able to overcome it in the second half. Brandon had some spurts, but no one else could figure much out against a team who had lost 3 of 4 at home. A hot streak within the last 5 minutes gave fans hope, but defensively, it wasn't there. Time for a big one tonight against the Clippers and then finally, some rest.

Game thoughts in fantastical bulleted format:

Travis Outlaw...I have no comment for you.
32 minutes for Greg seems way too many for a guy making zero impact.
And only 16 minutes for Joel is not nearly enough.
I knew Mehmet Okur would kill them.
Milsap is turning into a beast in Boozer absence.
Brandon and LaMarcus, nice work again.
We need to get Rudy a massage or something, find that stroke again.
Just pull this one out tonight, please.

Plus/Minus Sheet:

Box score.

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