Short-handed Blazers give Jazz fits on defense

Despite having their three best players firmly planted on the bench, the Portland Trail Blazers torched the Utah Jazz for 63 points in the first half on Thursday night at EnergySolutions Arena in the two teams' final preseason game of the season.

Something had to change or the Jazz players knew they would live to regret their effort, or lack thereof.

"The whole second half saved us a torture practice," said Jazz guard Ronnie Brewer after Utah rallied for a 100-89 victory. "If we would have had a mirror image in the second half of the first half, it definitely would have been a blowout (loss) and we would have had a painful practice (this) morning."

Even with Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden nothing but high-paid, court-side observers, the Blazers shot 55 percent from the field and led by 14 points at the half.

Naturally, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan was not pleased.

"In the first half, nobody played hard enough to break a sweat," Sloan said.

Of course, he was talking about his guys. The Blazers, on the other hand, were working hard, getting wide-open shots and nailing them. Portland was on fire from outside, making 8-of-11 from 3-point range before the half.

But Utah's defensive effort was vastly improved in the final two quarters. Portland scored a grand total of 26 points in the second half, which was nine fewer points than they had in the first quarter alone. Utah forced turnovers — including several shot-clock violations — and made the Blazers take difficult shots. Portland made only 33 percent of its field goals in the second half.

"We took it upon ourselves in the second half to buy into more defense and rotate better," said Brewer. "We made them take tough shots, and (Carlos) Boozer was in there cleaning up the rebounds as well as other guys crashing the boards. It made it easy for the wings to run out and get easy baskets and turn the game around."

Brewer finished with a game-high 22 points on 8-for-11 shooting from the field. His backup at shooting guard, Kyle Korver, got hot from outside to open up the final quarter and give the Jazz the lead for good. Korver made four treys on the night, including three in the fourth, to finish with 15 points.

"We started the game strong, but you need to give Utah credit," said Portland point guard Steve Blake. "They came out in the second half and they upped the intensity and we didn't respond to it. ... This game makes everyone realize that just because things are going our way in the first half doesn't mean they always go our way in the second half."

It also showed what a powerful motivation tool a possible "torture practice" can be.

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