Jazz at Suns
The Utah Jazz are suddenly looking like playoff contenders again with a three-game winning streak capped by a 30-point blowout of the defending champions. The Jazz will try to keep up the momentum when they hit the road and open a four-game road trip by visiting the Phoenix Suns on Friday.
Utah buried the Golden State Warriors 129-99 on Wednesday but quickly tried to turn the page as they prepare for a trip that will take them through San Antonio, New Orleans and Memphis after leaving Phoenix. "You want to move on from it in the sense that there's some sense of accomplishment: It's over," Jazz coach Quin Snyder told reporters. "But how you got the win, and how you played and what you're doing -- we need to understand the things that we did that we want to do again. It becomes a question of repeating it. The more you do it, the more it becomes who you are. Games like that can give you some confidence." Utah will take on a Suns team that opened its three-game homestand with a 102-88 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday. That marked second time this season that Phoenix held an opponent under 90 points, with the first coming in a 97-88 home win over the Jazz on Oct. 25.
TV: 9 p.m. ET, AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain (Utah), FS Arizona (Phoenix)
ABOUT THE JAZZ (22-28): Utah shot 58.2 percent from the floor against the Warriors and watched small forward Joe Ingles knock down 6-of-8 from 3-point range. "We had a great shooting night -- they didn't have the kind of night they can have," Snyder told reporters. "Shooting is an equalizer. I thought we came out and Joe Ingles set the tone. The confidence with which he shot the ball, I thought that helped our other guys shoot the ball." Ingles is 24-of-43 from 3-point range over the last seven games -- a stretch during which the Jazz are 5-2.
ABOUT THE SUNS (18-34): Phoenix snapped a five-game slide with Wednesday's win but lost point guard Isaiah Canaan to a fractured left ankle. Canaan went down in a collision with Mavericks shooting guard Wesley Matthews and fell on the ankle, causing it to break and turn in the opposite direction in a gruesome scene. "It's hard for fans and everyone sitting right there and teammates especially, a guy they battle with every day, it's their friend on and off the court," Suns interim coach Jay Triano told reporters. "I used the timeout to let us say a quick prayer. ... Not much we can do. He was in the hands of our medical staff and we trust they do their job and we had to keep doing ours."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Jazz SG Donovan Mitchell earned his second straight Western Conference Rookie of the Month award after averaging 22.2 points in January.
2. Suns rookie SF Josh Jackson matched his season high with 21 points on Wednesday.
3. Phoenix's 97-88 win over Utah on Oct. 25 snapped a seven-game losing streak in the series.