Warriors at Jazz
The Golden State Warriors watched a franchise-record 19-game home winning streak come to an end in overtime on Tuesday and will try to lick their wounds when they hit the road to visit the Utah Jazz on Friday. The Warriors struggled to deal with the Chicago Bulls on the interior on Tuesday without Andrew Bogut (illness) in the lineup and hope to have him back for the big front line of the Jazz. Utah dropped to 1-2 on its four-game homestand with a loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday.
Klay Thompson posted his third straight 30-point game against the Bulls but slowed in the second half and overtime along with the rest of Golden State, which missed its final 13 3-point attempts in the 113-111 setback. “We got some good looks, moved the ball pretty well and had some good shots at it,” Warriors forward David Lee told reporters. “I’ll take the results on that 99 times out of 100.” Golden State went 13-of-25 from 3-point range in a 116-105 win at Utah on Jan. 13.
TV: 9 p.m. ET, CSN Bay Area (Golden State), ROOT (Utah)
ABOUT THE WARRIORS (36-7): Golden State had won four straight games by an average of 26.5 points before squeezing out a 114-111 win over the Boston Celtics on Sunday and coming up just short against Chicago. “You’re not going to win them all,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr told reporters. “We were probably due for one.” The trip to Utah begins a stretch of 12 of 15 on the road for Golden State, which owns a 15-5 road record but has dropped four of its last six away from the Bay Area.
ABOUT THE JAZZ (16-30): Utah averaged 89.5 points in back-to-back losses to the Celtics and Clippers but won the battle of the boards in both and can overwhelm the Warriors up front with Rudy Gobert, Enes Kanter and Derrick Favors. Those three combined for 32 rebounds in the Jan. 13 meeting but the Jazz could not keep pace on the defensive end and rank 26th in the NBA with a team defensive field-goal percentage of 46.3. Utah held the Clippers to 44.7 percent on Wednesday but Gordon Hayward struggled to 11 points on 4-of-13 shooting in the 94-89 setback.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Gobert and Utah G Dante Exum were both named to the international team for the NBA’s Rising Stars game while G Trey Burke will play for the U.S. team.
2. Golden State has taken six straight in the series by an average of 13.7 points.
3. Thompson has hit at least three 3-pointers in eight straight games.