Hawks at Jazz
The Utah Jazz have put a five-game losing streak behind them and now
look to make up ground in the Western Conference playoff race when they
host the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday. Utah delivered a 106-94 victory over
the New Orleans Pelicans to end its skid but finds itself 1 1/2 games
behind the eighth-place Houston Rockets with just 20 games remaining.
The Jazz have the opportunity to put together a little run with four of their next six games at home - where they are 19-12. Utah actually was one game above .500 on Feb. 9 but lost eight of its next 10 games before defeating the Pelicans on Saturday. Atlanta has won four of its last five games and is coming off an impressive 107-97 road win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday. The Hawks are in fifth place in the Eastern Conference and harbor designs of surpassing Miami and Boston to finish third.
TV: 9 p.m. ET, FSN Southeast (Atlanta), ROOT (Utah)
ABOUT THE HAWKS (35-28): All-Star forward Paul Millsap scored 20 points and collected a season-best 18 rebounds in the victory over the Clippers after having just 16 total boards over his previous three games. The former Utah standout poured in 28 points against the Jazz in a 97-96 loss on Nov. 15, and he has recorded 22 double-doubles this season. Point guard Jeff Teague outplayed Los Angeles All-Star point guard Chris Paul with a stellar effort of 22 points, seven assists and six rebounds.
ABOUT THE JAZZ (29-33): Power forward Derrick Favors had a monster performance in the victory over New Orleans by delivering 28 points, 11 rebounds and six blocked shots for his 16th double-double of the season. Favors, who had a big game against the Hawks in the mid-November meeting with 23 points and nine rebounds, said the team's defense needs to improve down the stretch. "We've had a couple of lapses on this losing streak," Favors said after the New Orleans win. "Hopefully, we can get back to playing defense the way that we know we can, not really worry about the playoffs and just keep trying to improve and try to win a couple of more games, because we have a lot of tough ones coming up."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Jazz snapped an eight-game losing streak against the Hawks with the one-point win in November.
2. Utah C Rudy Gobert has collected 18 rebounds in each of the past two games and is averaging 15 boards over the last five contests.
3. Atlanta C Al Horford had 12 rebounds against the Clippers to raise his career total to 5,002 and become the ninth player in franchise history to reach 5,000.