Utah @ Oklahoma City preview

Last Meeting ( Dec 23, 2017 ) Oklahoma City 103, Utah 89

The Utah Jazz were one of the hottest teams in the NBA over the final two-plus months of the regular season and they'll try to carry that momentum into the playoffs, which begins with a visit to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Game 1 of their best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series on Sunday. The Jazz were 19-28 after a loss at Atlanta on Jan. 22 but stormed back with a 29-6 mark down the stretch to seize the fifth seed in the West.

"It's only brighter from that point," center Rudy Gobert told the Salt Lake Tribune of the moment when the turnaround began. "I looked at our team, our organization, and I thought, 'Why not turn things around?' We were 19-28, but we had everything in our hands. We knew we were going to turn." Utah leans on dynamic rookie guard Donovan Mitchell, while the fourth-seeded Thunder boast a trio of veteran stars led by Russell Westbrook, who averaged a triple-double for the second straight season. The reigning NBA MVP did the same in helping Oklahoma City win three of four matchups with the Jazz, averaging 22.8 points, 11.3 rebounds and 10 assists in the season series. The Thunder won 14 of their final 21 games and much of that late success came with the early-March signing of veteran Corey Brewer, who is questionable for the opener due to a sprained knee.

TV: 6:30 p.m. ET, TNT, AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain (Utah), FS Oklahoma

ABOUT THE JAZZ (48-34): Utah's turnaround roughly coincided with Gobert's return from a knee injury and he was dominant at times during the stretch run, averaging 16.6 points on 68.2 percent shooting to go along with 12.7 rebounds and 2.3 blocks in March. "As a competitor, it's always hard to watch from the sideline," he told the Tribune. "But watching them every night really gave me the motivation. When I came back, I really felt like we could do something special." Mitchell averaged 20.5 points in his first season and did not show any signs of hitting a rookie wall by scoring above his average in 12 of the final 14 games of the regular season.

ABOUT THE THUNDER (48-34): Following a first-round exit last season during Westbrook's MVP campaign, Oklahoma City brought in forwards Paul George and Carmelo Anthony for support, and while it took time to develop, a strong finish has the team feeling pretty good entering the postseason. "This is part of kind of why we wanted to all come together, because we saw an opportunity," Anthony told reporters. "This is actually a part of the big picture. This is the journey; to be able to accomplish what we came together to accomplish." While Westbrook rallied late to produce his historic triple-double average, George heated up offensively down the stretch while averaging 27.6 points and shooting 40.7 percent from 3-point range in April.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. The season series was over by Dec. 23, with Oklahoma City winning three straight over Utah in a 19-day span that month.

2. Westbrook averaged 37.4 points, 11.6 rebounds, 10.8 assists and 2.4 steals in five games of the first-round series loss to the Houston Rockets last season.

3. This marks the first meeting in the playoffs between the teams since 2000, when the Thunder franchise was located in Seattle.

PREDICTION: Thunder 109, Jazz 106