Pelicans at Jazz
The Utah Jazz just polished off a win over the team with the best record in the NBA and are winners of four straight games. The Jazz will try to make it five in a row and continue to climb up the standings in the Western Conference when they host the New Orleans Pelicans in the first of a home-and-home set on Monday.
Utah, which visits New Orleans on Wednesday, sits in sixth place in the West but owns a five-game cushion over ninth-place Sacramento while sitting two games behind the fourth-place Portland Trail Blazers in the race for homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs after recovering from a 17-point, fourth-quarter deficit in Saturday's 115-111 win over the Milwaukee Bucks. "We kept competing," Jazz coach Quin Snyder told reporters. "It starts on the defensive end, and kind of having the will to continue to compete, regardless of the score or the situation. When you do that, it doesn't always work out, but you give yourself a chance." The Pelicans are showing off their will to compete despite some internal division and knocked off Phoenix and Denver in the last two games while All-Star Anthony Davis continued to ride out what's left of his time with the team either on the bench or on a minute restriction. Davis sat out Saturday and New Orleans still managed to knock off the second-best team in the West with a 120-112 triumph at the Nuggets.
TV: 9 p.m. ET, FS New Orleans, AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain (Utah)
ABOUT THE PELICANS (29-36): Point guard Jrue Holiday led the way with 29 points on Saturday as New Orleans came from 19 points down against the team with the best home record in the West. "It's the same thing we do every time we're down," Holiday told reporters. "I think we lock in, especially here coming in the first couple of minutes, the first quarter is tough. You just kind of have to get your rhythm and from that point, I think our energy picked up. I think defensively, we executed well." Holiday scored 20 or more points in four of the last five games and is averaging 21.1.
ABOUT THE JAZZ (36-26): Donovan Mitchell scored a career-high 46 points but gave credit for the win to power forward Derrick Favors, who he said was "locked in on so many different levels." Favors finished with 23 points on 10-of-12 shooting, 18 rebounds and three blocks in the win. "I just try to go out there and play as hard as I can," Favors told reporters. "Sometimes I don't know the minute situation or what kind of opportunity I'm going to get, so when I'm out there I try to play 100 percent and go hard every possession and do what I can do to help the team win."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Jazz PF Jae Crowder scored in single digits in each of the last three games and is 4-of-17 from 3-point range in that span.
2. Davis is expected back in the lineup on Monday and will be restricted to around 20 minutes.
3. Utah took the last three in the series - all in New Orleans.