Jazz at Warriors
One of the few races still to be decided with three days left in the regular season is for the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference, a spot for which the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Clippers are fighting as home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs is on the line. The Jazz will try to get ahead in the race on Monday as they visit the top-seeded Golden State Warriors, who are winners of 14 in a row.
Utah enters Monday with a record identical to the Clippers' but sits in the No. 5 spot due to its head-to-head tiebreaker disadvantage and finishes the regular season against the top two teams in the West - Golden State and San Antonio. "We don't really care," Jazz point guard Shelvin Mack told the Salt Lake Tribune regarding the team's desire for home-court advantage. "We're not going to get the No. 1 overall seed. So at some point, we're going to have to win a game on the road." The Warriors no longer are playing for anything after locking up the top seed throughout the playoffs but expect to get point guard Stephen Curry back from a knee contusion on Monday. Curry and Kevin Durant will take the floor together for the first time since the latter went down with a knee injury on Feb. 28 and have two regular-season games to find the chemistry with each other the team enjoyed prior to the injuries.
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, ROOT (Utah), CSN Bay Area (Golden State)
ABOUT THE JAZZ (49-31): Utah owns the top scoring defense in the NBA, allowing an average of 96.7 points, but was torched for 59 by Portland's Damian Lillard in a 101-86 road loss on Saturday. The Jazz were missing some perimeter defense with George Hill (groin) sitting out and fellow point guard Raul Neto leaving at halftime with a sprained ankle. Utah is more concerned with being healthy heading into the playoffs, and All-Star small forward Gordon Hayward (quadriceps), shooting guard Rodney Hood (rest) and power forward Derrick Favors (rest) all are candidates to sit on Monday.
ABOUT THE WARRIORS (66-14): Durant made his return on Saturday and collected 16 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in 31 minutes. "It felt normal again," Durant told reporters. "I'm a basketball player. I love playing basketball. That's my favorite thing to do. So, to feel like I’m part of the team, to feel like I’m a part of this energy that we have, it feels great." Curry averaged 26.9 points and 7.8 assists with Durant out of the lineup, including a pair of 42-point performances in his last three games.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Jazz SF Joe Johnson went over 20,000 points for his career in Saturday's loss.
2. Warriors SG Klay Thompson has scored at least 20 points in each of his last eight games.
3. Golden State owns a seven-game winning streak in the series, including a 104-74 home victory on Dec. 20.