Jazz at Grizzlies
The Utah Jazz look to register their sixth victory in the past seven games when they visit the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday. The Jazz are in sixth place in the Western Conference but the hot stretch leaves them hopeful of challenging for the third seed over the season's final weeks.
Utah power forward Derrick Favors scored 25 points in Wednesday's 114-104 road win over the New Orleans Pelicans and he is averaging 21.3 points on 25-of-33 shooting over the past three contests. "Last game, I didn't do a good job of attacking," Favors told reporters of scoring 16 points in Monday's 115-112 loss to New Orleans on the front end of the home-and-home set. "This game, I wanted to come out and be more aggressive offensively and just try to find my rhythm." Memphis is coming off a solid 120-111 victory over visiting Portland on Tuesday as it outscored the Trail Blazers 38-25 in the final stanza. Standout point guard Mike Conley poured in a career-high 40 points and made 6-of-7 3-point attempts in a top-flight effort.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain (Utah), FS Southeast (Memphis)
ABOUT THE JAZZ (37-27): The victory at New Orleans began a stretch in which seven of 10 are on the road and Utah will be facing teams already eliminated from the playoff race in the Phoenix Suns and New York Knicks as well as teams not realistically in the mix like the Atlanta Hawks, Chicago Bulls and the Grizzlies. "It's impossible not to know that certain teams don't have as much talent, or are going through internal issues," Jazz forward Thabo Sefolosha told reporters. "That said, it's incumbent upon the players to do their best to tune all that out." Star shooting guard Donovan Mitchell scored 22 points on Wednesday and reached 20 or more in 24 of the past 26 games.
ABOUT THE GRIZZLIES (26-40): Conley scored 19 points in the fourth quarter against Portland while reaching 40 for first time in 780 regular-season games. "It was a lot of fun," Conley told reporters. "It was a weird game because I felt like I didn't play well at the beginning of the game. The whole team really didn't start well, and to end it the way that we did and for me to play like that in the second half was special." Backup point guard Delon Wright, recently acquired from the Toronto Raptors in the Marc Gasol deal, matched his career high of 25 points and is averaging 21 points over the past two games.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Grizzlies are 2-1 against the Jazz this season as the road team has prevailed on each occasion.
2. Utah PG Ricky Rubio recorded 10 assists on Wednesday for his eighth double-digit effort of the campaign.
3. Memphis C Jonas Valanciunas has five double-doubles in eight games since being acquired from Toronto.