With only pride and draft lottery positioning on the line, the Utah Jazz will host the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night in Salt Lake City.
Both teams come into the contest having already been eliminated from postseason play. The Jazz (16-63) were out of the running months ago, but the Blazers (35-44) made an unexpected push that officially ended over the weekend when the Sacramento Kings clinched a spot in the play-in by beating Cleveland on Sunday.
The Kings are four games ahead of Portland in the standings. Dallas is three games ahead of the Blazers with three games left on the schedule, but the Mavericks won the season series 3-1 and own the tiebreaker.
Though disappointed to not qualify for postseason action, Portland took a positive spin on the circumstances because a playoff run seemed unlikely when the Blazers were 13-28 at the midway point of the season.
“I feel like we didn’t really have too much of an expectation when we started the season,” Portland’s Toumani Camara said in an interview with OregonLive.com. Camara led the Blazers with 23 points and 10 rebounds in a win over the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday.
“We had a lot of ups and downs and stuff like that. And we’re down a lot of people right now, so we’re just trying to stack up as many wins as we can and get better every day. That’s been the main emphasis for us. Trying to focus on us and see what we can do in the future. We have a great group of young guys.”
Coach Chauncey Billups liked that Portland responded to the rough first half by winning 10 of 11 and putting themselves in a position to challenge for one of the top 10 spots in the West. It gave his younger players experience they wouldn’t have otherwise gotten.
“It’s a necessary process as you’re climbing and getting to that point,” Billups said. “For our guys to have played in so many meaningful games this year, where all the possessions matter, everything counts, that was new for a lot of these guys. That was new for me, as the coach. So, it’s so much fun to be able to be in the mix like that. And we’ve all grown because of it.”
Regardless of the outcome of the final three games, Portland will finish the 2024-25 season well above where it ended a year ago. The Blazers were 21-61 in 2024 for the fourth 60-loss season in franchise history.
The Jazz, meanwhile, are limping toward the end of their first 60-loss season in their 50 years.
Utah has lost nine games in a row and stumbled in 19 of 20 games during a dreadful stretch. The last three games have been tough to swallow on the defensive end as the Jazz have allowed at least 140 points to the Houston Rockets (143-105), the Indiana Pacers (140-112) and the Atlanta Hawks (147-134).
“There are people that are starting and (started Sunday) that wouldn’t necessarily start on a really, really good team,” Jazz coach Will Hardy said. “And that’s not a shot at them — they’re young. There aren’t that many rookies that come into the NBA or second-year players in the NBA that are starters on contending teams.”
Jazz rookie Isaiah Collier was in the starting five against Atlanta and bundled 17 points with 12 assists, while Keyonte George came off the bench for a career-high 35 points.
Utah hosts its final home game Friday against Oklahoma City before concluding this campaign Sunday at Minnesota.
Portland returns home for games Friday and Sunday against Golden State and the Los Angeles Lakers, respectively.
The Blazers have beaten the Jazz in two of three games played this season.
