Warriors at Jazz
Stephen Curry is playing like an MVP and the Golden State Warriors are thriving, just in time to hit the road for a three-game trip. The Warriors will try to pick up their 15th win in the last 16 road games when they visit the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday.
Golden State swept a three-game homestand and closed it with a 109-105 win over the Eastern Conference-leading Boston Celtics on Saturday as Curry exploded for a season-high 49 points. "It just felt like a playoff game," Warriors coach Steve Kerr told reporters. "High-level stuff, great defense, both teams playing incredibly hard and smart, not a lot of turnovers. Some tremendous individual performances. The guard play tonight was just amazing back-and-forth." Curry will get a test on Tuesday from another hot point guard in Utah's Ricky Rubio, who buried a 3-pointer with four seconds left in Friday's 97-93 win over Toronto while contributing to a defensive effort that left Raptors All-Star point guard Kyle Lowry 2-of-14 from the field. "Ricky's mentally tough, and he wants those shots," Jazz coach Quin Snyder told reporters. "He got one tonight and it was good to see him knock it down."
TV: 9 p.m. ET, NBCS Bay Area (Golden State), AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain (Utah)
ABOUT THE WARRIORS (40-10): Curry went 8-of-13 from 3-point range on Saturday and came out on top in a duel with fellow All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving. "I felt like we did a great job sticking to our game plan, but he's unbelievable," Irving told reporters of Curry. "You gotta give credit when credit is due. When he's making shots like that, it makes it easier for their team to create separation. For us, we would be getting within four, within two, and then Steph was hitting some big bombs to create that separation. So that's a tell-tale sign of a great player." Curry hit at least five 3-pointers in each of the last five games and is averaging 31 points on 52.6 percent shooting in that span.
ABOUT THE JAZZ (21-28): Rubio is often overshadowed in the Utah backcourt by rookie Donovan Mitchell, who scored 26 points on Friday and leads the team in scoring at an average of 19.2 points. Mitchell struggled to 11-of-34 shooting in the first two games of the road trip but went 9-of-20 against the Raptors and knocked down 4-of-7 from 3-point range. Mitchell and his teammates are getting used to playing with center Rudy Gobert, who is averaging 15.6 points, 10.8 rebounds and three blocks in five games since returning from a knee injury.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Jazz SG Rodney Hood (leg) sat out the last four games but returned to practice on Sunday and is day-to-day.
2. Warriors SG Patrick McCaw (back) and PF Jordan Bell (ankle) are both questionable.
3. Golden State, which swept Utah in the first round of the playoffs last spring, earned a 126-101 home win on Dec. 27 in the first meeting this season.