Lauri Markkanen scored 21 points and collected nine rebounds as the Utah Jazz beat the Portland Trail Blazers 115-99 on Tuesday night.
Markkanes, who played 31 minutes, did not have the most accurate shooting day, as three-point shots sank with an accuracy of 2/9 and all situational shots 8/18. Still, at least 20 points were collected for the sixth time in a row. Especially in the final quarter, Markkanen managed to decisively increase Utah’s lead with three consecutive baskets.
Utah’s No. 1 name was a playmaker Jordan Clarksonwho scored 30 points.
With the result, a confusing streak was broken, because the Utah coach Will Hardy’s In the 93-game era, it was only the first time that the Jazz left their opponent under 100 points.
The victory was really important for Jazz. Portland is one of those teams that Utah needs to knock off if it wants to live up to its playoff dreams. Utah has won four of their 11 games and is in 13th place in the Western Conference.
The NBA’s league system is currently such that the best six of the conference go directly to the playoffs from the regular season. The teams that finished in places 7–10 still fight each other for the two remaining places.
Basketball Reference website according to calculations Utah’s playoff chances are currently 2.8 percent. So that percentage is an estimate of how likely Utah is to finish in the top eight in its conference.
The color of the parquet confused the spectators
But why the heck was the Utah Jazz’s home floor purple in an important Portland win?
Local according to the media head coach Hardy had been skeptical of the new livery, but ended up liking it.
– It actually looks really good. I think there could have been worse colors than purple.
Other opinions were expressed on social media. Some felt that the game is terrible and difficult to watch when the floor is purple. Many commented that Utah’s field looks much better than many other teams’ specially colored fields.
It’s about the In-Season Tournament being played for the first time during the NBA season. In this tournament held during the NBA regular season, all matches are played on a specially colored court. According to the NBA, the matches of the In-Season tournament want to be distinguished from other regular season matches with “vibrant and bold” colors.
In the NBA regular season, each team plays 82 games. In a long season, there are always several tiring and numbing “forced ball games”. So the NBA created a tournament within the regular season to arouse a new kind of interest.
For the in-season tournament, the teams are divided into six groups – three groups from each conference. So there are five teams in each group.
Each team plays once in the initial group of the tournament against the other teams in the group, i.e. there are four matches per team in the initial group. The preliminary group stage is over on November 28. The winner of each group and the best group runner-up of each conference will advance to the playoffs of the top eight.
The two teams from each conference that were the best in the initial group stage get a home game in the quarterfinals.
The semi-finals and the final will be played in Las Vegas. All playoff matches are played on a one-over-one basis.
All the matches of the tournament, except for the final match, are part of the NBA regular season. The NBA regular season is modified for the rest of the season so that eventually all teams will have the usual 82 regular season games.
The winning team of the In-Season tournament receives the NBA Cup trophy. Each player on the winning team will receive $500,000. The losers of the final will receive $200,000, the semi-final place will receive $100,000, and the quarter-final place will receive $50,000. In addition, the most valuable player is awarded in the tournament and the star field is selected.
A strong start from Utah
Utah’s group for the In-Season tournament is very weak. The best team in the division, the Los Angeles Lakers are currently in seventh place in the Western Conference, Phoenix in tenth place, Utah Jazz in 11th place, Portland in 13th place and Memphis in 15th place.
The Utah Jazz are off to a great start to the tournament with two wins as they beat the Memphis Grizzlies 127-121 over the weekend.
The Los Angeles Lakers have also won two games in Utah’s group, but with a better basket they hold the top spot.
At least in the Jazz group, the new experiment of the NBA season has created a bit of a new vibe.
– Vegas, here we come! beamed leading scorer Jordan Clarkson after the Portland win.