In the second game of a nationally televised doubleheader, Utah gets a rare chance to showcase themselves when they travel to San Antonio on Sunday afternoon. The Jazz are still looking to overtake Houston's third seed in the West. Entering Sunday's action, they're four games back with six games left on the schedule. The Spurs are also hoping to catch up to Golden State as they're 3.5 games back of the conference's top seeding.
Tipoff is set for 3:30 PM Eastern time and the contest can be seen on local ABC stations, ESPN3, WatchESPN, and the ESPN app.
Jazz (47-29, 1st Northwest)
Utah has won three consecutive games coming into this contest, and that includes big wins over teams like Washington and New Orleans. The Jazz remains versatile with a defense that's given up just 96.4 points on average this season. An issue they've had recently is closing out second quarters, but they've made up for it by scoring 30.6 points in the last quarter on average in their past five games.
Point guard George Hill (16.9 ppg, 4.1 apg) has missed his last two games with a strained groin muscle. He's still questionable for the big contest at San Antonio. Shooting guard Rodney Hood (13 ppg, 3.4 rpg) led the team with 18 points in their previous meeting against the Spurs.
The team was held to just 37.5 percent shooting in that contest.
Spurs (58-17, 1st Southwest)
San Antonio may be running out of real estate to overtake Golden State, especially now that the Warriors have rattled off ten straight without Kevin Durant. Still, the Spurs have been dominant recently winning six of their last seven games.
That stretch includes big victories over the likes of Cleveland and Oklahoma City. The one loss was to the Western Conference's top squad.
The Spurs will be missing quite a few key players in this one. Power forward LaMarcus Aldridge (17.5 ppg, 7.5 rpg) is out with a thumb injury he suffered at Oklahoma City. He finished the game with 14 points and ten boards.
Shooting guard Danny Green (7.4 ppg, 3.3 rpg) is dealing with a quadricep injury and won't be available today. Manu Ginobili (7.7 ppg) will simply be getting a day of rest.
San Antonio is still favored by five points at home with the total O/U set at 189 points. The Spurs have won four of their last five meetings with the Jazz.