61.8% (47 of 76) was also the 11th best shooting game for the Trail Blazers since the 1986-87 season (all Blazer wins).  Not since a 2003 game has Portland had a better night from the field.

It was a barrage of Portland three pointers and alley-oops with little Jazz defense mixed in.  It is of very little surprise that Jerry Sloan was ejected, in fact, it is almost a miracle that he lasted nearly until the 4th quarter. The funny (or scary) thing is, the Jazz could have been crushed much harder had Carlos Boozer not somehow found his jumper.  Booze was nearly the only offense that Utah had in the first quarter and was 10-12 with 20 points before he was inexplicably ejected along with Joel Przybilla of the Blazers.

This game was virtually over from the tip.  Immediately it was visible that the Jazz were just going to be thrashed.  In the first 4 minutes the Jazz gave up 15 points on 6-8 shooting for the Blazers.  But it wasn’t just the defense of the Jazz early that was the issue, the offense was out of sync  and were making a countless number of bad passes.

Gotta give a lot of credit to the Blazers as well. Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge were a combined 20-30 with 51 points and I thought the Steve Blake played a fantastic game against Deron Williams.  The Blazers outscored the Jazz by 35 in the 29 minutes that Blake was on the floor.

For the record, I predicted on Twitter that the Blazers would get this game from the Jazz (much to the dismay of many Jazz fans).  The Blazers have been just about as good at home (31-7) as the Jazz (32-6) this season so it is wishful thinking perhaps that the Jazz could correct their road woes in such an environment on the second night of a back to back.  Sure the Jazz didn’t show up tonight but it’s just one game, it just happens to be at an inopportune time.  A loss is a loss, just like a win is a win.  So there is no need to over-analyze what went wrong. If anything I expect this game to have a positive effect on the Jazz for their game at Denver on Thursday more than a 2 point loss would have.  

• As Sloan was clearly trying to find something that would spark the Jazz, Matt Harpring started the second half for the Jazz in place of C.J. Miles.  Matt scored a 17 foot jumper just 15 seconds into the half. It’ll be interesting to see if C.J. remains in the starting lineup or if there is a shake up.
• The highest FG% game in the NBA since the 1986-87 season was 69.3% by the Los Angeles Clippers in the 1997-98 season.