It was an exciting encounter between the Utah Jazz and the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday, with the Jazz emerging with a tightly-contested 121-115 victory against a visiting Blazers side. Following the game, Portland superstar point guard Damian Lillard had some very high praise for his teammate, Hassan Whiteside, labeling him as “the best defensive center” in the league today. For his part, Utah big man Rudy Gobert did not seem to agree with this notion, and had a simple yet straightforward response to Lillard's earlier comments.

For the record, Gobert said: “He should have told his coach to put him in at the end.”

That's pretty savage from the Jazz center, who was obviously taking aim at Whiteside not being able to close out the game for the Blazers. The Portland veteran big man was actually pretty quiet in this one, logging just eight points, six rebounds, an assist, and a block in 22 minutes of action. This is definitely a far cry from Whiteside's outstanding performances for the Blazers of late, and surely, Gobert's efforts on the evening had some sort of influence on his opponents lack of playing time.

As for Gobert, he was on point for the Jazz yet again, accounting for 16 points on a pristine 7-of-7 from the field, to go along with 15 rebounds, two assists, and a block in 36 minutes of play. To be fair, this is the back-to-back and defending Defensive Player of the Year winner who's talking here, so he definitely knows a thing or two about being an elite defensive big man.