The Portland Trail Blazers travel to Salt Lake City today to take on the Utah Jazz in an early Halloween start. Portland will either get tricked into a loss against the 1-4 Jazz or take home the treat of another road win. The promising Utah roster is riddled with injuries, contributing to the tough start to their 2026-27 season. But Portland is now down a couple of important players of their own.
Here’s the rundown of the matchup. Don’t forget that the same begins at 12:00 PM, Pacific.
Portland Trail Blazers (3-1) at Utah Jazz (1-4) – Saturday, October 31st – 12:00pm Pacific
How to watch via antenna or cable: KUNP in Portland, or see your options on the Rip City Television Network
How to watch via streaming: BlazerVision in Oregon and Washington; League Pass everywhere else
How to listen: Rip City Radio 620AM
Trail Blazers Injuries: Ja Morant, Shaedon Sharpe (Out); Robert Williams III, Chris Youngblood (Questionable)
Jazz Injuries: Jaren Jackson, Jr., Jusuf Nurkic (Out); Lauri Markkanen (Questionable)
The Rundown on the Opponent
Once upon a time Utah threatened the league with the biggest lineup from coast to coast. Injuries to Jaren Jackson, Jr. and Jusuf Nurkic (plus sometimes to Lauri Markkanen) have shrunk both their size and scoring ability significantly. The Jazz have lost three straight, bowing to the Lakers, Grizzlies, and Spurs. Those losses are no huge surprise, but they’re still disconcerting for a team looking to take a step forward out of years of tanking-induced doldrums.
So far this season Utah’s stats have been relentlessly mediocre. They’re 20th in the league in field goal percentage, 17th in three-point percentage, 20th in points scored. They don’t get many shot attempts up. It’s just not a good look for a team that was supposed to be high-powered.
One thing the Jazz do well, though, is rebound. They’re tough offensive rebounders and they clean up on the defensive end as well. Good rebounding has been a Portland pillar this year. The Blazers are going to have to concentrate in order to finish defensive stands with an actual change of possession. If Utah gets easy buckets off of second chances, that’s one of the ways they can stay in the game. They’re capable of scoring 120 if things go right for them. Rebounding is one of the big ways in which it might.
A plus for Portland: the Jazz don’t force turnovers at all. If the Blazers take care of the ball, they should be able to stack their offense shot-for-shot against Utah’s. That should be a Portland advantage.
A wildcard stat: The Jazz are lousy at defending the three-point arc. This isn’t the strongest suit for the Blazers, but if they can bend that defense with crisp penetration, they should find open shooters on the sides of the court. One hot streak from distance might be enough to put this game away.
Given Utah’s condition, this game should be there for the taking for Portland. If they don’t win it, we have to start questioning their concentration.
Keyonte George is rising above it all for the Jazz so far this season. He’s averaging 24.4 points in 33.0 minutes per game, shooting nearly 50% from the field and 42% from the three-point arc. The Blazers have trouble defending point guards sometimes. Since George is just about the only viable scorer active for Utah right now (apologies to Ace Bailey), cutting the head off the snake seems like the way to go for Portland’s defense.
A Wrinkle for the Blazers
This will be Portland’s first game (of many) without Ja Morant in the starting lineup. It will be interesting to see who Head Coach Micah Nori inserts into Morant’s spot and how many minutes former reserves Jrue Holiday and Scoot Henderson get compared to the first few games of the year.