Utah @ Houston preview

Last Meeting ( Mar 8, 2017 ) Utah 115, Houston 108

The Houston Rockets are steamrolling through opponents on the road but they haven't tasted victory at home since Oct. 21, a scenario they'll try to end Sunday against the Utah Jazz. The Rockets improved to a league-best 6-1 on the road with a 119-104 victory at Atlanta on Friday, with James Harden scoring 21 of his 29 points in the first half.

Houston has played only three games in the Toyota Center this season and dropped its last two, with the only home win coming against NBA-worst Dallas two weeks ago. The Jazz have had virtually the opposite experience thus far, racing to a 5-1 home mark but entering this meeting as one of just two Western Conference teams - along with the Mavericks - without a road victory. Their hot start in Salt Lake City came to an end with a 109-100 loss to Toronto on Friday, which also stands as Utah's worst defensive scoring performance of the season. "Well, it wasn't the best defensive effort. That's got to be there for us," coach Quin Snyder told reporters. "A lot of individual breakdowns where guys were getting beat put us in some compromising positions and they were able to score. We're not going to win if we don't play defense better than that."

TV: 7 p.m. ET, AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain (Utah), AT&T SportsNet Southwest (Houston)

ABOUT THE JAZZ (5-4): A bright spot in Friday's loss was the continued solid play of rookie guard Donovan Mitchell, who had 25 points after scoring 28 in his previous game, although he recognizes there are other important stat lines. "Tonight I had zero assists and I'm not happy about that at all," Mitchell told reporters. "I'm not worried about how many points I scored. I didn't find any of my open teammates." Rodney Hood chipped in 17 points but is just 6-for-30 from the floor over his last two outings.

ABOUT THE ROCKETS (7-3): Houston jacked up 146 3-pointers over the last three games and is beginning to make a few more after some early accuracy issues, with Harden hitting six of the team's 16 against Atlanta. "We haven't been shooting the 3-ball that great all year," said Eric Gordon, who scored 20 points. "Once we start shooting the 3-ball, we're always going to be an attack team where we're attacking the basket, but when we start making 3s, we're going to be really hard to stop." Veteran Luc Mbah a Moute scored in double digits in one of his first five games but did so in four of the next five, including a season-high 20 versus Atlanta.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Utah won the final two of three meetings a season ago and shot 53.5 percent across the three contests.

2. Rockets C Clint Capela leads the NBA in field-goal percentage (69 percent) and Jazz C Rudy Gobert ranks third (64.9).

3. Jazz PG Ricky Rubio is averaging 8.7 assists in three road games, compared to 4.8 at home.

PREDICTION: Rockets 106, Jazz 100