Jazz at Bulls
The Utah Jazz squandered a chance to move up in the Western Conference standings with a letdown at Atlanta on Thursday, snapping a five-game winning streak. The Jazz will try to bounce back against another East opponent already eliminated from the race when they visit the Chicago Bulls on Saturday.
Utah does not play an opponent with a current winning record until the final two games against Denver and the Los Angeles Clippers and is trying to use the softer stretch of schedule to emerge from a pack that saw four teams with identical records bunched from fifth through eight in the West entering play on Friday. The Jazz were having their way with lesser opponents while posting double-digit wins over Minnesota, Phoenix, Washington and New York before allowing the Hawks to bury 19 3-pointers in a 117-114 loss on Thursday. Utah should not expect a pushover in the Bulls, who are winners of back-to-back games and showed they still have plenty of fight left in a 126-120 overtime win over Washington on Wednesday. "You step over the line and compete and good things will happen for you," Chicago coach Jim Boylen told reporters. "Guys competed. I just love that. Win or lose, I love it when guys do that. That's really cool for me."
TV: 8 p.m. ET, AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain (Utah), WGN (Chicago)
ABOUT THE JAZZ (42-30): Utah was playing the second night of a back-to-back at Atlanta after earning a 137-116 win at New York the previous night and acknowledged that fatigue may have played a factor in the loss. "Sometimes fatigue is as much mental as it is physical," Jazz coach Quin Snyder told reporters. "We want to win, but we want to get better. This game can help reinforce some things we know as a team and just have to continue to grind on." Star guard Donovan Mitchell seemed to be immune from any fatigue and scored 34 points against the Hawks after pouring in 30 against the Knicks.
ABOUT THE BULLS (21-52): Chicago forward Lauri Markkanen battled through a shooting slump that saw him fail to reach 20 points in nine straight games before breaking out with a team-high 32 on 12-of-21 shooting Wednesday. "Last year I was kind of able to surprise teams," Markkanen, who is finishing up his second season, told reporters. "I'm not surprising anybody this year, so I have to figure out how to get around different coverages. I didn't change anything. I just kept working on it every day. There were a couple times where I was fading away and short. So, I was trying to stay focused on my follow through and being balanced." Markkanen went 5-of-8 from 3-point range against the Wizards after knocking down a combined 4-of-19 in the previous four contests.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Bulls PG Kris Dunn scored a season-high 26 points and handed out 13 assists on Wednesday but is questionable for Saturday due to a back injury.
2. Jazz SF Joe Ingles is 13-of-22 from beyond the arc over the last three games.
3. Utah earned a 110-102 home win over Chicago on Jan. 12 behind Mitchell's 34 points.