Boston @ Utah preview

Last Meeting ( Dec 15, 2017 ) Utah 107, Boston 95

The Utah Jazz are in seventh place in the Western Conference and are winners of 11 of their last 13 after pulling away from the Golden State Warriors on Sunday. The Jazz will try to continue picking off injury-plagued teams in second place of their respective conferences when they host the Boston Celtics on Wednesday.

Utah will play five of its final eight games at home starting on Wednesday and is trying to move up in the standings while entering play on Tuesday 1 1/2 games behind the fourth-place Oklahoma City Thunder. The matchup with Boston lost some of its luster when Gordon Hayward, who left the Jazz to sign a max deal with the Celtics in free agency last summer, went down for the season with an ankle injury in the opening game, but Utah is having no trouble winning without its former franchise player. Hayward isn't the only major injury suffered by a key player for Boston, which is without All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving for the rest of the regular season after he underwent knee surgery late last week. The Celtics are trying to keep their sights on first place in the East despite losing Irving and are winners of their last four games to keep the first-place Toronto Raptors within shouting distance.

TV: 9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN, NBCS Boston, AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain (Utah)

ABOUT THE CELTICS (51-23): Utah's Donovan Mitchell is thought to be the main contender to Philadelphia's Ben Simmons in the Rookie of the Year race, but Boston's Jayson Tatum is enjoying a special rookie season as well. Tatum scored a team-high 23 points on 10-of-18 shooting in Monday's 102-94 win at Phoenix and is averaging 18.8 points on 56.9 percent shooting over the last five contests. Celtics point guard Terry Rozier is taking advantage of Irving's absence and is averaging 17.2 points in March, including a 33-point outburst in a win at Sacramento on Sunday.

ABOUT THE JAZZ (42-32): Mitchell scored at least 21 points in each of the last six games and is getting support on the inside from center Rudy Gobert. The 25-year-old Frenchman collected 17 points, 15 rebounds and four blocks in Sunday's win at Golden State and is averaging 15.6 points on 63.9 percent shooting and 11.7 rebounds over the last 27 games -- a stretch during which Utah is 23-4. That stretch began a few games after Gobert returned from a sprained PCL and bruised tibia suffered at Boston on Dec. 15.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Jazz SF Jae Crowder scored in double figures in five of the last seven games.

2. Celtics PF Marcus Morris (ankle) left Monday's game and is day-to-day.

3. Utah earned a 107-95 win at Boston on Dec. 15 to snap a three-game losing streak in the series.

PREDICTION: Jazz 99, Celtics 95