Oklahoma City @ Utah preview

Last Meeting ( Dec 20, 2017 ) Utah 79, Oklahoma City 107

The Utah Jazz were routed by the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday and aim to avenge the thrashing when the teams meet Saturday in Salt Lake City. The Jazz scored just nine first-quarter points and were never competitive in the game at Oklahoma City as the Thunder rolled to a 107-79 victory.

Oklahoma City has won five of its last six games but had to fight for a 120-117 home victory over the Atlanta Hawks with star point guard Russell Westbrook knocking down the tiebreaking 3-point basket with 1.7 seconds left. "We feel good going down the stretch that we're going to make the right plays, get a basket," Thunder forward Paul George said afterward. "Whereas before, we didn't know where or how we were going to close. I think we know now how to close and where we're going to close." Utah has won just two of its past nine games, but its most recent performance was a strong one as it recorded a 100-89 win over the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday. "It was a good team effort," Jazz power forward Derrick Favors said afterward. "We came out with a lot of energy on the defensive end ... just tried to make it hard for them."

TV: 8 p.m. ET, FSN Oklahoma, AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain (Utah)

ABOUT THE THUNDER (17-15): Westbrook, who is averaging 28.8 points over the past five contests, contributed 30 points and 15 assists in Friday's victory. "Besides the shot, he was unbelievable," Thunder coach Billy Donovan said afterward, "because it wasn't going well in the third quarter and his enthusiasm and positivity, his leadership was really, really good for our team. We got so stagnant on both sides of the ball. We had that period there where we just didn't play particularly well." Forward Carmelo Anthony drained a season-best seven 3-pointers while scoring 24 against the Hawks for just his third 20-point outing in the past 14 games.

ABOUT THE JAZZ (15-18): Shooting guard Rodney Hood scored 29 points in the victory over San Antonio and is averaging 24 over the past three games. Hood has scored 20 or more points on eight occasions this season - twice notching 30 or more - and is starting to fill the scoring void left by the offseason departure of All-Star forward Gordon Hayward. "I've got to be real aggressive," Hood told reporters. "Especially when they're not being real aggressive on me and I can see daylight, just rise up and shoot the ball. My teammates give me a lot of confidence to do that."

BUZZER BEATERS

1. The Thunder are 2-1 versus Utah this season and have won nine of the past 11 meetings.

2. Westbrook had 24 points (on 10-of-13 shooting) 10 rebounds, seven assists and four steals in Wednesday's win over the Jazz.

3. Utah rookie G Donovan Mitchell (toe) could miss his third consecutive game.

PREDICTION: Jazz 108, Thunder 106