Jazz at Raptors
The Utah Jazz had their league-best defense shredded by Isaiah Thomas in Boston on Tuesday and are about to face a team with an even more potent backcourt when they continue a five-game trip by visiting the Toronto Raptors on Thursday. The Raptors are looking to bounce back after a 28-point loss in San Antonio.
Utah held its previous three opponents under 90 points and brought a four-game winning streak into Boston before allowing the Celtics to shoot 55.4 percent from the floor. "Defense was an issue," Jazz forward Gordon Hayward told reporters. "I think from the beginning there were a lot of defensive breakdowns. We spotted them 10 early points and it just kind of went from there. The wide-open 3's ... a good team is going to make a good percentage of those shots." The Raptors stood alone as the top scoring offense in the Eastern Conference before squandering a chance at a winning road trip with a dud at the Spurs on Tuesday, which made them 3-3 on the six-game trip and dropped them to 0-6 against top contenders Cleveland, Golden State and San Antonio. "There’s no explanation," Toronto coach Dwane Casey told reporters. "That was a championship performance by a championship team, and if we don’t come out and put our foot down each and every night - and it’s not just tonight - we’ve had some slow starts and it’s a habit. We have to come out and develop those habits."
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, ROOT (Utah), Sportsnet One (Toronto)
ABOUT THE JAZZ (22-14): The Raptors began their road trip in Utah on Dec. 23 and handed the Jazz a 104-98 loss in which the backcourt combo of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan burned them for a combined 60 points. Utah won four straight following that loss but all four were against sub-.500 teams, and the schedule got much tougher with Boston kicking off a stretch of four of five games against winning teams. The Jazz are patiently awaiting the return of point guard George Hill, who sat out the last two games with a concussion and a lip laceration and remains day-to-day.
ABOUT THE RAPTORS (23-11): Toronto had not suffered a double-digit loss before falling 121-111 at Golden State and 110-82 at San Antonio on the trip, and the only silver lining in Tuesday's loss was that Lowry only logged 29 minutes and DeRozan 32. Lowry, who averaged 31 points on the first five games of the trip and went 6-of-7 from 3-point range in a win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday, slumped to a season-low six points on 2-of-9 shooting on Tuesday. “I just missed some shots,” Lowry told reporters. “All my 3's, besides one, I thought were good shots. Honestly, I just missed shots. I don’t think they took me away from getting to where I wanted to get to."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Raptors reserve SF Terrence Ross is averaging 14.8 points in the last four games.
2. Jazz C Rudy Gobert collected eight points and 13 rebounds on Tuesday, marking just the second time in the last 15 contests that he failed to record a double-double.
3. Lowry scored 32 points in Toronto's 104-94 home win over Utah last season.