In a scheduling coincidence, the Utah Jazz and Golden State Warriors come into Monday night’s matchup in Salt Lake City after playing a common opponent.
For what it’s worth, the Warriors fared much better than the Jazz in their recent game against the Phoenix Suns.
The biggest difference? Golden State has Stephen Curry.
The future Hall of Famer added yet another dazzling highlight to his career portfolio on Saturday night when he drained a last-second, game-winning 3-pointer to lift host Golden State to a 113-112 win over Phoenix.
Devin Booker had just given the Suns a 112-110 lead by hitting a turnaround jumper with 35.6 seconds remaining.
Brandin Podziemski found Curry on the inbounds pass with 3.3 seconds left. Curry gathered the ball from 33 feet out, spun around and heaved up his 10th career game-winner with five seconds or less remaining.
Curry, who hit nine 3-pointers en route to 30 points, said the tough shot was “just muscle memory.”
The Jazz weren’t fortunate enough to be within a last shot in their most recent game, a 129-115 loss to the host Suns on Thursday.
Phoenix used a 13-0 run in the third quarter to blow the game open. The Suns led comfortably the rest of the way.
After pulling within three in the third, the Jazz found themselves trailing by 19 later in the period.
It was the Jazz’s first game after trading Simone Fontecchio, Kelly Olynyk and Ochai Agbaji prior to Thursday’s trade deadline.
Taylor Hendricks and Talen Horton-Tucker saw expanded roles off the bench against the Suns, with Hendricks posting three points and eight rebounds in 18 minutes and Horton-Tucker going for seven points in 14 minutes.
Monday marks the first meeting of the season between the teams. They will meet in Salt Lake City again on Thursday before facing each other twice in San Francisco in April.
