The Utah Jazz travel to Arizona to face the Phoenix Suns at Phoenix Suns Arena on Wednesday.

The Jazz (38-12) just had a baffling loss on Monday, losing to the Dallas Mavericks, 111-103. While taking a defeat at the hands of Dallas isn't necessarily bad, it is when you see what the Mavericks looked like. They played that game without Kristaps Porzingis and had two starters go scoreless. The guy who really killed them was Donovan Mitchell, though, going 6-of-23 from the field and 0-of-8 from three-point range. That's a rare occurrence from the 2021 All-Star, but he's certainly the sort of player that can shoot you out of games when his scope is off. The good news is that this loss was simply a blip on the radar, with Utah winning nine-straight headed into that matchup. That's the team we've seen all year, and they look well on their way to homecourt advantage throughout the postseason.

The Suns (35-14) might be the only team who can catch Utah for that top spot in the west, playing some of the best basketball over the last two months. In fact, they have a 27-6 record across their last 33 games in total. Utah is the only team that can rival a run like that, with Chris Paul changing this club's dynamic. What he's really done is add a defensive mindset, and that's something Phoenix fans haven't seen since the Mike D'Antoni days. They currently rank third in points allowed and look like one of the most dangerous teams in the NBA on both sides of the ball. The next step for this ball club is to get Deandre Ayton rolling because if he can play like the star player we've seen at times, it adds a whole new dynamic with the Paul-Booker backcourt.

These teams played back on December 30, with Phoenix prevailing, 106-95. While that does give the Suns two-straight wins in this series, the Jazz won the previous eight meetings before that.