Utah @ Miami preview

Last Meeting ( Dec 12, 2018 ) Miami 84, Utah 111

The Utah Jazz look to complete a perfect three-game road trip and extend their season-high winning streak to six contests when they visit the Southeast Division-leading Miami Heat on Monday night. The Jazz opened their trek by rallying to beat Atlanta 111-106 on Thursday before erasing an eight-point halftime deficit to earn a 114-107 triumph at Charlotte two days later.

“I think our focus (changed),” Utah center Rudy Gobert told NBA.com Saturday after registering his 12th straight double-double. “We know what to do. We know we can play better throughout the game. We don’t feel like we’re playing the way we want to play yet, but we’re doing it at the end of games. And I feel like we’re getting better every night.” The Jazz (7-8 on the road) will have to raise their level of play against the Heat, who have not lost back-to-back games all season and entered Sunday tied for third in the league with 21 victories. Miami, which is 12-1 at home this season after going 19-22 at American Airlines Arena in 2018-19, opened a four-game homestand with a 129-114 victory over New York on Friday as veteran guard Goran Dragic (groin) recorded 18 points and eight assists in his return to the lineup. The Heat have won four of the last five meetings, including a 102-100 victory at home last December as the team’s split two contests in 2018-19.

TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain (Utah), FS Sun (Miami)

ABOUT THE JAZZ (18-11): The 7-1 Gobert is averaging 17.4 points and 14.3 boards in 10 December games, entering Sunday third in the league in rebounding (14.1) and tied for fifth in double-doubles with 21. Donovan Mitchell leads Utah in scoring (25.2) while Bojan Bogdanovic has raised his season mark to 21.2 after registering 26.8 points per game over the past four. Point guard Mike Conley (13.6 points, team-high 4.6 assists) is expected to miss his third straight contest with a hamstring injury and Emmanuel Mudiay has picked up the slack, averaging 11 points the past two games.

ABOUT THE HEAT (21-8): Dragic, who is averaging 16.1 points and 5.2 assists, missed nine games with the injury and did not seem to miss a beat Friday - draining four 3-pointers. “For the last few weeks we’ve had four rookies in that second unit,” Miami forward Kelly Olynyk told the Sun Sentinel of Dragic after posting his second double-double of the season (10 points, 10 boards) Friday. “He just picks up our level of offensive execution to a new height, and it’s huge for us.” Leading scorer Jimmy Butler (20.4) settled for nine points on 2-of-3 shooting in 28 minutes Friday, but dished out eight assists to improve his club-high mark to 6.8.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Miami C Bam Adebayo leads the team with 10.6 rebounds per game and averaged 21.5 points the past two contests.

2. Utah SF Joe Ingles is averaging 16 points over his past five games to raise his season mark to 8.9.

3. The Jazz owned the second-most turnovers per game (15.9) in the league and the Heat (15.7) were third through Saturday.

PREDICTION: Heat 112, Jazz 104