Jazz Close Road Trip In Meeting With Bulls

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The Utah Jazz can close their five-game road trip with a winning record with a victory over the Chicago Bulls.

The Jazz are 2-2 over their last four games with wins over the Boston Celtics and Toronto Raptors, and losses to the Golden State Warriors and Washington Wizards.

The Bulls meanwhile are coming off a 100-86 win over the Detroit Pistons on Sunday and will face the Jazz on the second night of back-to-back games.

Jazz Look To Finish Road Trip Strong

After a rocky start to the road trip, the Jazz are looking to return to Utah with two straights wins after beating the Raptors on Friday night. The Jazz trailed by five with under two minutes to go, but a dominant stretch from guard Donovan Mitchell carried the Jazz to victory.

Mitchell scored eight of his game-high 31 points in the final 1:25 of the fourth quarter to overcome a late Raptors lead. Pascal Siakam’s potential game-tying three-point shot rimmed out and the Jazz left Tampa with a victory.

The @utahjazz got a very Un-Jazz win and the toughness of Donovan Mitchell helped carry them to victory. #takenote https://t.co/eep4XDYwC2

— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) March 20, 2021

The matchup with Chicago is the Jazz final Eastern Conference road game of the season. The Jazz are 9-5 in road games against the East this year and can finish the season with double the wins over losses with a victory against the Bulls.

The Jazz own the best record in the NBA at 30-11 and sit two games ahead of the Phoenix Suns for the top spot in the Western Conference.

Rudy Gobert is listed as questionable for the game after suffering a hip contusion earlier in the trip. The All-NBA center played through the injury on Friday including all 12 minutes of the fourth quarter.

Bulls Need Wins At Home

The Bulls will host the Jazz and the Cleveland Cavaliers to open the week before beginning a stretch where they play nine of their next 10 games on the road.

Chicago will first embark on a four-game road trip through the West, including a second matchup with the Jazz on April 2. After returning one for one game against the red-hot Brooklyn Nets, they head back out on the road for a five-game road over a span of seven nights.

Flying back home with a W. pic.twitter.com/NfbGteTKXc

— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) March 22, 2021

The Bulls are 19-22 and sit just one game behind the Charlotte Hornets for the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference. If the playoffs started today, the team would face the New York Knicks in the NBA’s postseason play-in tournament for one of the final two spots in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Chicago has struggled at home recently. The team is just 2-5 in their last seven home games dating back to February 26.

Key Matchup

The key matchup between the Jazz and Bulls will pit the Jazz Mitchell against Bulls guard Zach LaVine.

LaVine is having one of the most productive seasons of any player in the NBA averaging 28.3 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 4.9 assists while shooting an outstanding 52 percent from the floor and 43 percent from the three-point line.

The guard was selected to his first All-Star team earlier this month where he played alongside Mitchell on Team Durant.

Zach is feeling it!@NBCSChicago | @ZachLaVine pic.twitter.com/2I0y5zAy6b

— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) March 20, 2021

Mitchell is averaging 25.3 points per game for the Jazz while adding 5.4 assists and 4.5 rebounds. The guard is shooting 42 percent from the floor and 37 percent from the free-throw line.

On Friday, Mitchell became the first player in NBA history to make at least 15 free-throws in a game while going 0-9 or worse from the three-point line.

Broadcast

The Jazz and Bulls tip-off at 7 pm MT and the game will be broadcast on AT&T SportsNet.