Jazz at Wizards
The Utah Jazz are hitting their stride as they get set for the final few weeks of the regular season and are trying to move up in the Western Conference. The Jazz will try to push their winning streak to four straight when they open a four-game road trip by visiting the Washington Wizards on Monday.
Utah will face 11 straight teams with a current losing record starting with Washington and enters play on Sunday within three games of the Houston Rockets for the No. 3 spot in the West after winning the last three games by an average of 17.7 points. "When we come out ready like we did tonight and we're able to do that for four quarters, we're very hard to beat," Jazz center Rudy Gobert told reporters after a 114-98 victory over the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday. The Wizards are trying to stay in the race for the No. 8 spot in the East and earned their third win in four games with a 135-128 triumph over the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday. "We are positive," Washington All-Star Bradley Beal told reporters. "I know I am. At the end of the day I want to make the playoffs and I'm sure everybody else in here does too. We are not out of until the end of year comes and the last games are done and over with, so we are going to keep fighting and pushing, because we got a good chance."
TV: 7 p.m. ET, AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain (Utah), NBCS Washington
ABOUT THE JAZZ (40-29): Gobert collected 23 points on 9-of-12 shooting, 17 rebounds and three blocks in Saturday's triumph for his fourth consecutive double-double and power forward Derrick Favors added 13 points and 12 boards. The dominant work in the frontcourt helped Utah overcome some shooting woes in the backcourt and on the wings, where Ricky Rubio and Joe Ingles combined to go 3-of-18 from the floor, including 0-of-6 from beyond the arc. Rubio, who sat out losses to Memphis and Oklahoma City last week resting a hip injury, is 4-of-27 in three games since returning to the lineup.
ABOUT THE WIZARDS (30-40): Washington is three games behind the eighth-place Miami Heat entering play on Sunday and any chance the team has of making up the gap lies with Beal, who poured in 40 points on 12-of-17 shooting on Saturday while burying nine 3-pointers and handing out seven assists. "The way (Beal's) playing, the way he's improved, the way he's led, my very biased opinion he's All-NBA,” said head coach Scott Brooks. "He's doing things that that level of player does night in and night out. It's not an every-other-night (thing), it's not a two-out-of-three nights, it's every night he brings it." Beal is averaging 33.2 points on 52.2 percent shooting over the last five games.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Wizards PF Jabari Parker recorded his first two double-doubles since joining the team in the last two games.
2. Utah PG Dante Exum is out indefinitely after being diagnosed with a partially torn patella tendon in his right knee.
3. Rubio scored 21 points in a 107-104 victory at Washington last season.