Jazz at Bulls
The Utah Jazz are taking advantage of the Los Angeles Clippers' recent swoon to pull away with the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference and homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs. The Chicago Bulls, who host the Jazz on Saturday, are sliding in the opposite direction and sit two games out of the No. 8 spot in the East.
The Bulls dropped a 112-107 decision at Washington on Friday for their seventh loss in eight games and fell into a 19-point hole before rallying to make it close at the end. "We were just lazy," All-Star swingman Jimmy Butler told reporters. "I hate this word - and soft. I hate it. But that's exactly what we were. They beat us at every 50-50 ball. Whopped our tail in transition. We turned the ball over. All those things that we talked about all year replayed in that first half. And then we decided to play some better basketball in the second half." The Jazz began their road trip with a 97-83 win at Detroit on Wednesday but could not match that result the next night at Eastern Conference-best Cleveland and ended up falling 91-83. "We put ourselves in position, but we didn't make shots," point guard George Hill told the Salt Lake Tribune after the loss. "That's frustrating because most of the shots we took, we normally make them. We had some nice looks tonight, but they just didn't drop."
TV: 9 p.m. ET, ROOT (Utah), WGN (Chicago)
ABOUT THE JAZZ (43-26): Utah sits three games ahead of the Clippers with 13 games left in the regular season and won six of seven before falling in Cleveland. Jazz center Rudy Gobert did not seem intimidated by LeBron James and the date with the defending champs as he posted 20 points on 10-of-13 shooting and 19 rebounds for his fifth double-double in his last six games. The 7-1 Frenchman leads the NBA in blocks with an average of 2.49 in addition to 13.2 points and 12.8 rebounds as the defensive compliment to All-Star small forward Gordon Hayward.
ABOUT THE BULLS (32-37): Chicago lost its second-leading scorer when shooting guard Dwyane Wade was declared out for the rest of the regular season with an elbow injury on Thursday and the team was adjusting on Friday. "We've got to keep it really simple," Butler told reporters. "You can't put too many guys in too many different places and positions out there on the floor because they aren't used to it. It's not their fault. But it's kind of like, it's a lot of different plays whenever D-Wade isn't out there. All of his plays are scratches now." Rookie small forward Paul Zipser moved into Wade's spot in the starting lineup on Friday and managed eight points on 4-of-11 shooting.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Bulls C Robin Lopez collected 25 points and 12 rebounds on Friday for his first double-double since Feb. 8.
2. Jazz SG Rodney Hood (right knee soreness) sat out Thursday and is day-to-day.
3. Chicago earned an 85-77 win at Utah on Nov. 17 behind 20 points and 12 rebounds from Butler.