Utah Jazz: 3 best possible NBA playoff first-round matchups
By Duncan Smith
Utah Jazz first-round opponent No. 1: Portland Trail Blazers
Damian Lillard versus Donovan Mitchell. Jusuf Nurkic versus Rudy Gobert. CJ McCollum and Carmelo Anthony, Mike Conley and Bojan Bogdanovic. What’s not to love about this matchup between the Utah Jazz and the Portland Trail Blazers?
The Blazers are currently safe from the play-in, but not by much. They’re in sixth with a 1.5 game lead over the seventh-place Dallas Mavericks, so things could get uncomfortable for them if things start to go sideways.
These two teams average the most 3-point attempts and the most 3-point makes this season, with the Jazz averaging 16.8 makes on 43.2 attempts per game, and the Blazers averaging 15.8 makes on 41.9 3-point attempts. This could end up being the highest-scoring playoff series (or at least first-round series) in NBA history simply as a result of the prolific shooting both teams can fire at each other game after game.
It won’t be an ideal matchup for the Blazers by any means since the Jazz simply have an incredible amount of firepower, but for Jazz fans and neutral observers, this could be one of the more scintillating first-round matchups we’ve seen in recent history.