Jazz look to sweep season series with Mavericks

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The Utah Jazz are red hot, having won five in a row as they continue their climb in the Western Conference. The Dallas Mavericks are looking to rebound after two tough losses that halted their best stretch in the season thus far.

The Jazz (34-19) and Mavericks (20-32) hook up for the fourth and final time Thursday at American Airlines Center. Dallas is still looking for its first win in the season series.

Utah, fourth in the West, extended its winning streak Wednesday night by routing New Orleans 127-94 on the road. Joe Johnson came off the bench to score 27 and hit a season-high six 3-pointers. George Hill scored 19 and All-Star Gordon Hayward added 17 points.

“We’re playing pretty good basketball right now,” coach Quin Snyder said. “Hopefully we’ll continue it. We haven’t been able to sustain that yet this year. We’ve had some moments where we’ve been pretty good. We’ve had some moments where we’ve won and not been good.

“We’ve got some guys that are starting to figure it out with one another and hopefully we’ll keep playing well.”

Utah is 3-0 against the Mavs this season, though two games were decided by five or fewer points and one of those went into overtime. The Jazz are 15-10 on the road and 7-5 on the second half of a back-to-back.

Dallas is looking to regain the form that led to a recent 9-3 run to vault into playoff contention. The current two-game losing streak has hurt in the standings.

Dropping games to Denver and Portland — teams Dallas is trying to catch in the West — on successive nights earlier this week left the Mavs tied with Sacramento at 10th in the conference and three games back of the eighth-place Nuggets.

The recipe to get back in the win column is simple, according to Wesley Matthews.

“Play like our lives depend on it,” he said. “That’s what we’ve been doing. We let two important wins get away from us but we’re still right there. With (Utah) we just have to play a full 48 minutes.”

Despite falling to the Blazers 114-113 on Tuesday to open a four-game homestand, there were plenty of positives. Harrison Barnes scored a team-high 26 points. Matthews, who started his career in Utah, scored 13. Rookie point guard sensation Yogi Ferrell had 12 points.

And then there was Dirk Nowitzki, who turned back the clock to score 25. He drilled two 3-pointers in the final minute that gave Dallas the lead, including what would have been the game-winner with 3.9 seconds left if not for C.J. McCollum’s floater at the buzzer.

Nowitzki also moved into the top 10 all-time in NBA history in made field goals.

“This was a vintage night for him,” Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said. “He is obviously getting back to where he is really feeling good. To be able to have a night like this on the second night of a tough back-to-back — coming back from Denver, losing time, and a long trip — he played a phenomenal game. And the shot making at the end was just vintage; it was breathtaking.”