• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

Jazz-Mavericks Preview

Feb 9, 2016 - 5:23 AM The beginning of 2010 was the last time the Utah Jazz won in Dallas, and the end of that year was their most recent winning streak of at least seven games.

While trying to remain one of the NBA's hottest teams, the Jazz can simultaneously end both of those droughts when they visit the Mavericks on Tuesday night.

The opening three months of the season brought mostly headaches for Utah (25-25), but the Jazz have finally found a rhythm with six straight wins - the league's second longest current streak behind Golden State's nine.

Utah has its first winning streak of more than two games this season to reach .500 for the first time since mid-December - doing it in very Jazz-like fashion.

Opponents have averaged 85 points while shooting 40.7 percent with a 29.5 mark from 3-point range. The defense has been there all season for the Jazz, who rank toward the top of the league allowing 95.9 points per game, but they have been especially stingy of late by holding each of their last eight opponents to fewer than 100 points.

Utah never trailed at Phoenix on Saturday and led by as many as 23 points before holding on for a 98-89 victory, its only road win during the streak to improve to 8-15 away from home.

It was also their third straight game holding an opponent to fewer than 92 points which has resulted in a 21-0 record this season.

''I want us to be consistent," coach Quin Snyder said. "(Saturday's) game was (what) a microcosm of the season can look like where you play real well and then you don't play so good. We have been playing well or better.''

Though the Jazz have averaged 89 points the last three games on 42.4 percent shooting, their defense has been good enough to put them in position for their first seven-game winning streak since Nov. 20-Dec. 1, 2010 - a run that was snapped with a 93-81 home loss to the Mavericks two days later.

That defeat started a stretch of 16 Dallas wins in the last 20 games of this series, including nine of the last 10. Utah has lost its last 10 games in Dallas since a win on Jan. 9, 2010, and is 2-22 there dating to March 8, 2003 - including a 102-93 loss on Nov. 20.

Dallas (29-25) is 15-10 at home, though it lost two in a row there as part of last week's three-game skid. The Mavericks snapped the slump with Saturday's 114-110 overtime victory at Memphis, scoring over 100 points for the first time in six games.

Chandler Parsons followed up a six-point showing in Friday's embarrassing 116-90 home loss to San Antonio with 26 on 10-of-15 shooting against the Grizzlies. Dallas scored just 26 points in the first half against the Spurs to follow three consecutive games of shooting under 40 percent.

While Utah has a Wednesday game at New Orleans left before the All-Star break, Dallas closes its first half on Tuesday.

"It's important to get this game because it is the last game and because we want to take some momentum into the break," coach Rick Carlisle said at Monday's practice. "But we're not thinking about the result, we're thinking about the process."