PORTLAND Harrison Phillips Color Rush Jersey , Ore. — The No. 3 playoff seed in the Western Conference is on the line Wednesday night at Moda Center when the Portland Trail Blazers play host to the Utah Jazz is what will have all the feel of a playoff game.
Portland and Utah come into the final regular-season game with a 48-33 record, but the teams have taken decidedly different routes to get there.
The Trail Blazers enjoyed a 13-game win streak in late February and early March but enter Wednesday’s contest coming off a four-game losing streak. Utah, meanwhile, joins the Houston Rockets as the hottest teams in the NBA. Since Jan. 24, when they were 19-28, the Jazz are 29-5 and have won six straight coming into the showdown at Portland.
The Jazz aren’t just winning games, they’re beating opponents up. In their recent stretch of victories, they’ve defeated Minnesota 121-97, trounced the L.A. Clippers 117-95 and topped the L.A. Lakers 112-97. On Tuesday, Utah annihilated Golden State 119-79 at Vivint Smart Home Arena.
“More than anything http://www.ravensauthorizedshops.com/authentic-robert-griffin-iii-jersey , I’m just really proud of our guys,” Utah coach Quin Snyder told reporters. “What these guys did collectively to get better. … I don’t want to diminish what this group has accomplished.”
But the Jazz know there is more to accomplish.
“The next thing is getting that No. 3 spot and homecourt advantage (in the first round of the playoffs),” Utah rookie guard Donovan Mitchell said. “That’s our big goal now.”
Utah will be playing the second of back-to-back games at Moda Center, but Snyder used no player more than 28 minutes in the rout of the defending champion Warriors.
More than a week ago, Portland was one victory away from locking down homecourt advantage. That win never came with the Blazers losing in succession to Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Denver on a highly discouraging road trip. Now, it comes down to one more chance to clinch the No. 3 spot in the West.
Portland’s offense has been struggling in recent games, but never more so than Monday night at Denver, when the Blazers shot 33 percent from the field Logan Paulsen Jersey Falcons , including 7 for 33 from 3-point range. Was it a matter of just missing good shots?
“We can shoot the ball,” Portland point guard Damian Lillard said after the Denver game. “If we were shooting bad because we were taking bad shots, then that would be a problem. But we are getting good looks. … We shoot the ball. That’s what our team does. It’s not a concern. It always comes back.”
Portland coach Terry Stotts said he was encouraged by the defense the Blazers played at Denver, holding the Nuggets to 37.3 percent shooting. Another good sign: The performance of center Jusuf Nurkic, who scored 20 points and collected 19 rebounds — including a career-high eight off the offensive glass — against his old team. Nurkic’s matchup with Utah’s Rudy Gobert will be a key one Wednesday night.
The Blazers will be helped by the return of power forward Ed Davis, who missed four games with a sprained ankle. The veteran reserve, who provides rebounding, defense and energy off the Portland bench, came back to play 15 minutes against the Nuggets and should be closer to 100 percent against the Jazz.
Portland’s starting small forward, Moe Harkless Blake Martinez Jersey , remains out after undergoing knee surgery March 27. He is expected to be back for the playoffs.
Mike Mitchell brought bluster and a physical if occasionally volatile presence to the Pittsburgh secondary. William Gay was a steady hand and contributed a decade of consistency to the Steelers. Robert Golden had the hard-to-quantify intangibles that made him a special teams ace and reliable backup.And now they’re gone.
The two-time defending AFC North champions released all three players Wednesday, signaling a shift in direction in a defensive backfield that faltered in key moments last season.
The Steelers won 13 games but also allowed Tom Brady to light them up late in a mid-December loss that determined home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs. They couldn’t stop Jacksonville’s Blake Bortles from orchestrating a playoff upset at Heinz Field that brought a season filled with Super Bowl expectations to an emphatic and sudden halt.
The moves freed up about $7 million in cap space, money Pittsburgh can now use in part to retool around veteran cornerback Joe Haden, promising if erratic cornerback Artie Burns, and safety Sean Davis.
Mitchell spent four uneven seasons with the Steelers, who made a rare splurge in free agency when they brought him in from Carolina in 2014, signing him to a five-year, $25 million deal. Mitchell picked off four passes and recovered four fumbles in Pittsburgh. He also reined in the questionable hits that cost him tens of thousands of dollars in fines earlier in his career.
He also served as a firebrand for a secondary in transition following the retirement of stars Troy Polamalu and Ike Taylor. Yet he would occasionally go for the big hit when a routine tackle would have sufficed, an issue that popped up at inopportune times.
Gay’s departure leaves quarterback Ben Roethlisberger as the only player from Pittsburgh’s last Super Bowl victory nearly a decade ago. Gay carved out a niche as a reliable and versatile defensive back. He has played in 176 consecutive games while spending 10 of his 11 seasons with the Steelers. Gay’s playing time decreased last season as rookie Mike Hilton took over his spot as the nickel back.
Golden filled in at various spots in the secondary, though his real impact was on special teams Authentic Marcus Davenport Jersey , a unit he served as the captain from 2014-16.
The moves came a month after Tom Bradley replaced Carnell Lake as defensive backs coach. Lake stepped down shortly after the playoff loss to Jacksonville to spend more time in California to watch his son play high school football.
Pittsburgh, as has long been its custom, stayed quiet on the first day of the league’s new year. The Steelers have focused most of their work over the last six weeks trying to get under the 2018 salary cap, something they’ve done largely through restructuring existing contracts.
While Pittsburgh has depth concerns at safety and inside linebacker, it’s likely the Steelers will rely heavily on the draft to address those needs. Davis and J.J. Wilcox are the only safeties on the current roster with serious NFL experience. Pro Bowl linebacker Ryan Shazier has already been ruled out for 2018 as he recovers from spinal surgery in December.
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