For the second game in a row on Thursday night, the Utah Jazz will face a hungry team that has extra motivation.
Considering how the Jazz are playing and what happened to them Wednesday night — when they were blown out 138-122 by the driven Los Angeles Lakers — that could be a daunting task.
Similar to how Los Angeles’ Anthony Davis called the Jazz-Lakers game “very important” because it was his team’s last game before the All-Star break, Stephen Curry admitted there is a lot of urgency for Golden State when it travels to play the Jazz in Salt Lake City on Thursday night.
The importance of the game increased after the Warriors blew a big lead en route to a 130-125 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday in San Francisco. The defeat snapped Golden State’s five-game winning streak.
It was the sixth time the Warriors lost after holding at least a 15-point lead this season, and that isn’t sitting well with Curry and his teammates.
“Either way, how tonight would have gone, we would say the same thing about tomorrow — we’re trying to keep the streak going and not have any missteps,” Curry said. “Now, it’s the same mission but a different mindset of bounding back and just feeling good going into a six-day break. It’s a very, very, very, very important game, to say the least.”
The Warriors still are on somewhat of a hot streak, having won seven of their past nine games, including a 129-107 rout of the Jazz in Salt Lake City on Monday night. In that contest, Curry fired in five 3-pointers in the final eight minutes while compiling 25 points, 10 assists and six rebounds, Klay Thompson scored a game-high 26 points.
Against the Clippers, Curry set an NBA record by sinking at least seven 3-pointers for the fourth consecutive game, going 9 of 19 from long distance. However, his 41 points weren’t enough for Golden State.
The Warriors face a tough task the rest of the way if they hope to make a splash in the postseason. Currently, Golden State is in the final spot for the Western Conference play-in tournament at 26-26. The Jazz, who have lost three in a row and six of their pat eight games, trail the Warriors by 1 1/2 games.
“We’re very average,” Curry said postgame Wednesday. “Very average doesn’t get it done in this league. We need to make a run. Hopefully, we bounce back tomorrow and after the All-Star break hit a stride where we win every game (at home) and steal a few on the road.”
Both teams will be playing their last game before the All-Star break. The Thursday contest was rescheduled from Jan. 17 after Golden State assistant coach Dejan Milojevic died after having a heart attack in Utah.
The Jazz are still struggling after losing Kelly Olynyk, Simone Fontecchio and Ochai Agbaji in trades last week. On Wednesday, Collin Sexton led Utah with 18 points, but the Jazz allowed the Lakers to shoot 57.1 percent and win easily despite playing without LeBron James.
“We haven’t given up, so that’s one thing we have on this team,” said Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen, who finished with 16 points and eight rebounds on Wednesday. “(We’re) just playing our hearts out. … We have a lot of potential with this team.”
–Field Level Media