The Utah Jazz look to put an end to their five-game losing streak when the Denver Nuggets visit Salt Lake City Monday night.
The Jazz opened a four-game homestand with Saturday's 112-96 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers and Blake Griffin led the charge with 28 points. Chris Paul posted 17 points and 10 assists for Los Angeles, which shot 56.3 percent.
Jazz leading scorer Gordon Hayward (19.2 ppg) posted a game-best 30 points on 11-of-18 shooting. He has scored 30-plus points in two of his last four games, averaging 22.8 points in that stretch. Hayward has scored 30 or more points four times this season and averaged 20.2 ppg in November.
Derrick Favors had 19 points and seven rebounds against the Clippers, and Trevor Booker netted 15 off the bench for Utah, which has lost three in a row as the host and is 3-5 at EnergySolutions Arena.
"We did a good job of fighting back," said Booker, whose 15 points were a season high to go with nine rebounds. "We made a (few) errors, (some) miscommunication and they capitalized on it."
Utah hasn't scored 100 or more points in the last seven games and will also entertain Toronto and Orlando in its state capital.
The Nuggets split a home-and-home series with the Phoenix Suns and took the second game, 122-97, Friday night. They scored 33 points in each of the first three quarters (99-70) and shot 46.6 percent from the field.
Arron Afflalo led the way with 22 points, Timofey Mozgov had 13 and four players finished with 11 points (Wilson Chandler, Kenneth Faried, Ty Lawson, Danilo Gallinari). Lawson added 10 assists and J.J. Hickson provided 10 points and grabbed 11 rebounds.
Denver has been playing well of late with six wins in the last seven tries.
"It means a lot for the mental toughness of this team," Gallinari said. "We are very focused. You don't want to lose back-to-back games against the (same) team."
The Nuggets are fourth in the NBA with 105.5 points per game, but sit 26th in opponents' scoring at 105.5. They are 6-0 this season when holding opponents under 100 points and 7-0 when outshooting them.
After visiting the Jazz, Denver, which is 3-5 on the road, will return to the Rocky Mountains to host Portland on Tuesday.
Nuggets center JaVale McGee has missed the last three games with a leg injury and is probable Monday.
Denver and Utah split four meetings a season ago. The Nuggets are only 6-14 in the previous 20 games between the Northwest foes in Salt Lake City.
[SportsNetwork.com]
