Suns at Jazz
The Utah Jazz fell short in a showdown against the Houston Rockets at home on Saturday and are winless in two contests since the All-Star break. The Jazz will try to avoid letting the slide reach three in a row when they host the Phoenix Suns on Monday.
Utah took a four-point lead into the half on Saturday but was outscored 38-19 in the third quarter and surrendered sole possession of the No. 4 spot in the Western Conference to the Rockets with the loss. "In the third quarter, we didn't have the same energy we needed on the defensive end," Jazz coach Quin Snyder told reporters. "We didn't get our hands on balls, we didn't get deflections. We fouled once, which tells you a little bit about our (lack of) aggressiveness." Phoenix fell at Toronto in its first game after the break on Friday but gave itself a shot at a winning three-game road trip by fighting past Chicago 112-104 the next night. All-Star guard Devin Booker led the way with 29 points while center Deandre Ayton stepped up with 28 points and 19 rebounds against the Bulls.
TIME: 9 p.m. ET. TV: FS Arizona, AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain
ABOUT THE SUNS (23-34): Ayton has been limited to 24 games this season by injury and suspension but continues to show flashes of the potential that made him the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2018 and enjoyed his third consecutive double-double on Saturday. "I thought the difference was (Ayton)," Phoenix coach Monty Williams told reporters. "His dominance on both ends, scoring around the basket and guarding at the rim tonight, guarding in one-on-one situations after a switch. Twenty-eight and 19 boards, that's a monster night. I told him we need him to play with that type of disposition every night." Former Jazz point guard Ricky Rubio joined Ayton in the double-double club with 18 points and 11 assists on Saturday.
ABOUT THE JAZZ (36-20): Star guard Donovan Mitchell scored 31 points on 12-of-24 shooting on Saturday but was not happy with the flow of the offense in the second half. "We had a few slippages, and that leads to them hitting 3s, (us) missing rotations," Mitchell told reporters. "Third quarter, we came out a little stagnant - we moved the ball the first two quarters, and in the third quarter, we kind of got a little iso-like." Utah went 7-of-31 from 3-point range in the loss as Mitchell, point guard Mike Conley and small forward Bojan Bogdanovic each finished 1-of-6.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Suns SF Kelly Oubre Jr. is 16-of-48 from the floor over the last three games, including 4-of-19 from beyond the arc.
2. Jazz SG Jordan Clarkson scored 22 points on Saturday to reach the 20-point plateau for the fourth time in the last five games.
3. Utah is enjoying an eight-game winning streak in the series and earned a 96-95 victory at Phoenix in the last meeting on Oct. 28.