Utah @ New Orleans preview

Last Meeting ( Feb 5, 2018 ) Utah 133, New Orleans 109

A 10-game winning streak didn't provide much separation from the rest of the pack in the Western Conference for the New Orleans Pelicans, who badly missed star forward Anthony Davis while watching that winning streak come to an end on Friday. The Pelicans hope to have Davis back in the lineup when they host the hard-charging Utah Jazz on Sunday.

Davis suffered a sprained ankle in a 114-101 win at Sacramento on Wednesday and sat out Friday as New Orleans returned home and watched their winning streak disappear in a 116-97 loss to the Washington Wizards. "We are fine, first of all, because we knew we didn't play with AD, which is our best player, so hopefully he'll be back (for the) next one, and we just need to stick together," Pelicans forward Nikola Mirotic told reporters of the team's mental state after watching the winning streak come to an end. "We know that what we've been doing so far has been doing great, playing together. And defensively, I think we need to step up a little bit more, especially defensive transition." The Jazz entered play on Saturday in a virtual three-way tie for the No. 8 spot in the West, 2 1/2 games behind fourth-place New Orleans. Utah took the first two of its three-game trip by a total of 37 points and has won five straight and 17 of its last 19 contests.

TV: 4 p.m. ET, AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain (Utah), FS New Orleans

ABOUT THE JAZZ (36-30): Utah picked up its 10th consecutive road win with a 95-78 triumph at Memphis on Friday in which it held the Grizzlies to 37.3 percent shooting. "Not every game is pretty," Jazz coach Quin Snyder told reporters. "There were stretches where we weren't playing well offensively, but our defense held strong. If we can do that, we can survive." Utah managed to find enough offense against Memphis despite star rookie Donovan Mitchell slumping to 12 points on 4-of-15 shooting -- just the third time in the last 12 games that he failed to reach 20 points.

ABOUT THE PELICANS (38-27): Guard Jrue Holiday emerged as a second scoring option behind Davis during the winning streak but was held to four points on 2-of-8 shooting without Davis around to draw the defense on Friday. "He just struggled," New Orleans coach Alvin Gentry told reporters of Holiday. "They did a good job of walling in and not letting him have the usual drives that he had. As I said, we didn't get into that flow where he can catch the ball and do some things with it. We just got to find a way to do it." Holiday averaged 24.9 points on 52.1 percent shooting and 8.5 assists during the winning streak.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Mitchell reached 150 3-pointers in 63 games on Friday, beating the previous rookie record set by Portland's Damian Lillard (68) in 2012-13.

2. Pelicans SF Darius Miller scored 20 points on Friday after totaling eight in the previous three games.

3. Utah took six of the last seven meetings, including a 133-109 triumph at New Orleans on Feb. 5.

PREDICTION: Jazz 109, Pelicans 105