The Portland Trail Blazers keep trucking along. Coming into the night, the Utah Jazz wanted to play spoiler and did not want to be swept by Portland. They played like it for three quarters, but Portland came out with the victory as they beat the Jazz 111-99. Portland improves to 52-28 on the season, while the Jazz, who are the worst team in the Western Conference fall to 24-55 and look to be in good shape to get a great lottery pick. This is also the first time in Blazer franchise history that Portland has swept the Jazz in a season series. The Jazz are terrible this year, but that is still impressive.

Utah came out ready to play as most of these teams have been. They punched Portland in the teeth outscoring them 31-23 as Portland seemed to be lacking in the energy department. Enes Kanter came off the bench for Utah and went 3-for-6 in the first quarter. Trey Burke went 2-for-4, which includes two made three-pointers. Alec Burks has been playing really good basketball for most of the season and he went 3-for-4 in the first quarter including a three pointer.  With everything going Utah’s way, fans still had this sense that Portland was not done.

The second quarter displayed that. Portland came out and outscored the Jazz 30-20 and really started shifting the momentum of the game. Going into the second quarter, the Jazz had an eight-point lead, but didn’t score from the field until 9:21 in the second quarter. The defense started tightening up once again as fans and analysts have seen for multiple games now. After a made shot by Rudy Gorbert, the Jazz did not score a bucket until the 7:03 mark. The offense for the Jazz was not as free-flowing as it used to be and Utah was just missing shots. Adjustments were being made and the record that Utah has started to show in the game. Wesley Matthews went 3-for-5 in the second quarter including two made three-pointers.

Utah’s offense started going again at the 3:55 mark as the lead kept shifting. Wesley Matthews took control at the end of the quarter with two made three-pointers in less than a minute and a critical clear path foul with 0:04 remaining. This allowed Portland to take a two-point lead going into halftime, which was huge considering how good the Jazz had been playing.

LaMarcus Aldridge came alive in the third quarter going 3-for-5 from the field and making Utah pay for leaving him open. His mid-range shot was smooth and the Blazers are now 7-1 since LA came back. Think he helps?

The fourth quarter is where this game gets turned on its head. Damian Lillard going into the fourth quarter had taken just four shots and only had two points going into the quarter. You could say that Utah was defending Lillard well, however, Utah was leaving LA open in his usual spots or Robin Lopez had an easy lane to the basket. So, Damian focused on distributing because those were better shots and options. Someone needs to copyright Lillard time as this kid caught fire. In the fourth quarter, he went 4-for-6 including four three-pointers that really sucked the life out of the Utah Jazz. Lillard made his first of four three-pointers at the 10:15 mark, which pushed the lead to four. However, Lillard was not done. He dribbled up once again and drained another 24-foot three-pointer that pushed the lead to five. If that wasn’t enough for you, after two free throws and a made shot by LA, Lillard drilled another three-pointer, this time a 26-footer, which pushed the lead to eight. For good measure, Lillard swished another 26-footer and pushed the lead to eleven.

Obviously, Lillard stole the show in the fourth quarter. He is now second in the NBA in points scored in the fourth quarter underneath Kevin Durant and above DeMar DeRozan. Lebron is number four. Good company to be in. These are the kinds of games that make fans drool at the idea of Lillard in the postseason.

Both teams shot the ball well as Portland and Utah shot 46% and 47% respectively from the field. The biggest different was Portland’s three-point shooting. Portland shot went 11-for-22 and shot 50% from three. Utah did shoot 46% from beyond the arc; however, they only attempted 12. Another impressive stat was the turnovers. Portland only had eight and Nicolas Batum had zero. Cutting them down as we go into the home stretch, very good to see. Portland out-rebounded the Jazz in the first three meetings, but tonight with Utah having both Enes Kanter and Derrick Favors the Jazz out-rebounded the Blazers 47-41. Portland also had an impressive 19 fast-break points. Finally, Portland was fantastic at the foul line going 20-for-24 and shooting 83%.

Damian Lillard won the game for Portland, but LaMarcus Aldridge and Wesley Matthews both had fantastic nights. LA finished with 18 points on 8-for-19 shooting and had 14 rebounds. Is it just me or is LA turning into Tim Duncan with his stat lines?

Wesley Matthews always plays well against his former team and finished with 21 points on 6-for-14 shooting, 3-for-7 from three.

The game itself was not as interesting as what else had been going on. Houston, just a game and a half ahead of Portland going into tonight’s games, lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves without Kevin Love and pretty much any of their starters. Corey Brewer of all people scored 51 points and Minnesota beat Houston by two. Now, Portland is just a half a game back of the fourth seed, but keep in mind that Houston has the tie-breaker. The odds are still not good that Portland grabs the fourth seed, however, James Harden and Chandler Parsons had to play heavy, heavy minutes as Harden logged 46 minutes and Parsons logged 43. With Portland continuing to win, Houston is forced to continue playing their starters. This will prove interesting going into the postseason. There is a good chance that even if Beverley comes back and when Howard does come back for the postseason that Houston’s starting lineup will be nowhere near 100 percent with injuries and fatigue. This brings some interesting aspects into play with the most likely first-round matchup with the Rockets.

Also, at the time of this writing, Golden State was taking care of the Lakers and will be two and a half games back of Portland. While the odds of Golden State catching Portland are getting slimmer by the minute, Portland’s game on Sunday against Golden State becomes very important. If Portland wins that game, then the fifth seed is all locked up and, honestly, I do not think you want to fall to the sixth seed and face the surging LA Clippers with Houston limping into the playoffs.

Now, it gets serious. The next game, which is Golden State, will determine seeding for Portland. With a heartbreaker of a game in their last meeting and the semi-bad blood between both teams, this will be a good one and will most likely have a playoff atmosphere in the building. However, Portland it showing in these last eight games that they are locked in. Tip-off is on Sunday night at 6:00 p.m. PST at the Moda Center. This one should be a hell of a game. Stay tuned!