Pistons at Jazz
The Utah Jazz are fresh off a mammoth victory that signals their rising status in the Western Conference and look to follow up the win when they host the Detroit Pistons on Friday. Utah outplayed and outworked the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers while recording a 100-92 victory Tuesday and can move to a season-best nine games over .500 with a win over Detroit.
The stellar victory over Cleveland opened eyes around the NBA as the Jazz have remained under the radar despite a winning percentage of .600. "We don't want no one to talk about us," point guard George Hill told reporters. "We want to sneak up on people." Detroit is playing the fourth contest of a five-game road trip and has dropped 10 of its last 14 games after being drubbed 127-107 by the Golden State Warriors on Thursday. "We made too many defensive game-plan mistakes where we weren't doing what we were supposed to be doing and we didn't get back in transition and get matched up and we turned the ball over," Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy told reporters. "When you don't do those three things against a team like that, you have no chance."
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN, FSN Detroit, ROOT (Utah)
ABOUT THE PISTONS (18-23): The status of shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is in doubt after he injured his left shoulder in the first quarter when dealing with a screen by Golden State center Zaza Pachulia. X-rays were negative but Caldwell-Pope was experiencing a high level of pain and will undergo an MRI exam Friday in Salt Lake City. Van Gundy said his absence had no bearing on the poor performance in which Detroit committed 19 turnovers and was 6-of-28 from 3-point range.
ABOUT THE JAZZ (24-16): Small forward Gordon Hayward contributed 28 points on 10-of-12 shooting and collected nine rebounds against Cleveland as he continues to make his case to be an All-Star for the first time in his career. Hayward is averaging a career-high 22.2 points and has elevated all parts of his game while rating as one of the main ingredients for Utah's improvement. "I feel like we've got to move up a little bit higher in the standings," Hayward told reporters. "I'm worrying about wins more than anything, and I think that stuff usually comes when you're winning."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Pistons won both of last season's meetings despite averaging just 93.5 points.
2. Utah C Rudy Gobert has 25 consecutive double-digit rebounding outings and has grabbed 13 or more in each of the last eight contests.
3. Detroit PF Jon Leuer (knee) will miss his third straight game.