Futility Aside, Trail Blazers Confident

When Brian Grant woke up Wednesday morning, he had the same disheartening thoughts as the rest of the Portland Trail Blazers, wondering how things could have gone so wrong in the fourth quarter of Tuesday night’s 93-83 loss to the Utah Jazz in Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinal.

Fresh off shooting 75% in the third quarter, the Trail Blazers shot 12.5% in the fourth (two for 16) and scored only five points, a playoff record for futility in a quarter.

“I think that was everybody’s first thought: We let one get away from us,” Grant said. “Another thing that crossed my mind is, ‘Man, we can beat this team, all day and all night. If we cut down on our mistakes, we win [Tuesday] night.’

“They hit us with one of their best games. They can say they didn’t play that well, or whatever. But they were out there doing whatever they had to do to get this victory, and we made a lot of mistakes, so we’re confident we can win this.”

The two disparities that stood out in the box score were Utah’s 43-36 rebounding advantage and 30-15 edge in free throws made. (The Jazz went to the line 17 times more than the Trail Blazers).

“It wasn’t even the numbers,” Portland Coach Mike Dunleavy said. “You look at the box score, you say, ‘OK, I can live with that.’ But the timing of some of them. When you play a team like this, those short lapses become very big.”