Johnny Juzang had season highs of 22 points and six 3-pointers and John Collins added 20 points as the Utah Jazz steamrolled the host Portland Trail Blazers 141-99 on Friday night.
Walter Kessler collected 17 rebounds and five blocked shots to go with 13 points as the Jazz broke a five-game losing streak. The win was just the second in 11 games for Utah and just its fifth in 22 games this season.
Keyonte George had 17 points, Collin Sexton registered 16 points and seven assists and Svi Mykhailiuk had 13 points and eight boards for the Jazz, who had a 39-18 edge in fastbreak points.
Jerami Grant and Dalano Banton scored 19 points apiece for Portland, which lost for the seventh time in nine games. Anfernee Simons and Kris Murray added 14 apiece for the Trail Blazers.
The Jazz shot 55.2 percent from the field, including 14 of 32 (43.8 percent) from 3-point range, and held a commanding 61-34 rebounding edge while improving to 3-8 on the road.
Juzang wasn’t the only Jazz reserve to make a big contribution. Drew Eubanks had 12 points and nine rebounds, Isaiah Collier also scored 12 points and Brice Sensabaugh had 11 points.
Portland hit just 38.9 percent of its field-goal attempts and was 14 of 47 (29.8 percent) from behind the arc. Shaedon Sharpe added 10 points for the Trail Blazers.
Portland’s Robert Williams III (concussion) missed his fifth straight game.
Utah dominated from the start and jumped out to leads of 13-3, 18-5 and 33-17 at the end of the first quarter.
The lead reached 38-20 after Sensabaugh’s basket with 9:53 left in the first half and reached 20 for the time on Kessler’s dunk with 1:38 to go. It was 67-44 at the break as George led the way with 13 points. Simons had 11 in the half for Portland.
The onslaught continued in the third quarter as the Jazz scored the first seven points to increase the margin to 30. A 3-pointer by Juzang made it 101-66 with 1:25 left in the period before Utah took a 102-70 lead into the final stanza.
Micah Potter drilled a 3-pointer to push the Jazz’s lead over 40 at 114-73 with 8:34 remaining. The lead topped out at 46 points on Juzang’s trey with 6:33 left.
–Field Level Media