Thunder at Jazz
The Oklahoma City Thunder are limping toward the end of a long road trip and now must visit the hottest team in the NBA in the Utah Jazz on Monday night. The Thunder dropped three of four to begin their six-game trip and two in a row by a total of 43 points, although they have been afforded four full days off since Wednesday's 122-100 setback at Golden State.
The hope is that more days of practice will help the squad establish some consistency. "It's really focusing on practice. We lost games we feel like we should have won," guard Anthony Morrow told the team website Saturday. "We just have to lock in on some things and clean some things up. There's no better way to do that than practice. Everybody came in focused today and locked in." Utah's six-game winning streak is its longest of the season and it has not lost at home since before Christmas. George Hill scored a season-high 30 points in Saturday's 109-100 win over Indiana as the Jazz inched closer toward to one of the top four spots in the Western Conference.
TV: 9 p.m. ET, FSN Oklahoma, ROOT Rocky Mountain (Utah)
ABOUT THE THUNDER (25-19): Oklahoma City was outrebounded 46-36 at Golden State and awaits the return of center Steven Adams, who missed two straight games due to a concussion and is questionable for this one. Russell Westbrook did his thing in the most recent loss with his NBA-high 21st triple-double (27 points, 15 rebounds and 13 assists) and Enes Kanter chipped in 22 points and nine boards off the bench. Westbrook was off the mark (7-for-25) in a 20-point loss at Utah earlier this season.
ABOUT THE JAZZ (29-16): Center Rudy Gobert's streak of consecutive games with at least 10 rebounds reached 30 in the win over the Pacers, leaving him one shy of matching DeAndre Jordan (Dec. 12, 2013-Feb. 9, 2014) for the fifth-longest run since the start of the 1997-98 season. The big man also hit on 39-of-53 shots over a six-game stretch. Hill, who missed the win over the Thunder earlier in the season, is shooting 54.4 percent from long range in 12 home games.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Oklahoma City is 4-10 on the road against Western Conference opponents.
2. Jazz SF Gordon Hayward had 27 points versus Indiana and topped the 20-point mark in six of his last seven games.
3. Thunder SF Andre Roberson is 3-for-18 from the field in the last three contests.