Paul Coro

azcentral sports

Tuesday’s game: Suns (6-14) at Jazz (13-9)

Tip-off: 7 p.m. (Phoenix time)

TV/Radio: FSAZ/KMVP-FM 98.7

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Game-day Orange Slices:

* When the Suns and Jazz play, neither teams wants a change of pace.

The Suns want to pick up the pace against Utah because the teams are so disparate in that department and because the Suns are the rested team who was in Salt Lake City about 12 hours before the Jazz returned in the early morning from a Monday night win at the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Suns still will have the tougher task to inflict their will and snap a seven-game Western Conference losing streak. Utah consistently has succeeded in winning the style battle against most teams and the Suns failed to score 90 points in their past five meetings with Utah.

Utah has won six of its past seven games despite going recently without two injured starters, George Hill and Derrick Favors, and Alec Burks. The Suns, the NBA’s fastest-paced team, is playing a Jazz team that is the most methodical with only 91 possessions per 48 minutes, about 10 fewer than Phoenix.

“We want to create pace, not play within their pace,” Suns coach Earl Watson said. “We understand they do a great job of playing playoff basketball because they just set it up. They run their sets. They make you have to defend.”

Utah is 13-9 this season but seems like it should be better for having the NBA’s fourth-highest shooting percentage on offense (46.5) while holding opponents to the second-lowest shooting percentage on defense (42.9). Jazz opponents are scoring a league-low 95.1 points per game.

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“They give you stops,” Watson said. “When tbey get stops, they might push the score by plus-four, plus-three, plus-seven. It’s a game of stops. They’re going to stop us on defense some. We have to come back and stop them. So our focus can’t be on the last offensive play. It has to be on the defensive stop that we need throughout the process.”

The Jazz led the Lakers 82-63 with 3:15 to go in Monday’s third quarter but wound up getting extended when the lead was cut to three. In a recent one-point home win against Miami and the Lakers game, Utah has been disappointed about how much dribble penetration it allowed.

Utah plays disciplined, risking little on defense (league-low 11.5 created turnovers per game) and not crashing the offensive boards to retreat defensively.

“We have to move the ball from side to side, get in the paint and get into the teeth of the defense,” Suns point guard Eric Bledsoe said. “We’re scoring enough points. We just got to lock up on the defensive end.”

* Utah’s top scorer, Gordon Hayward, had a streak of three consecutive 30-point games broken Monda. He still is averaging 22.8 per game after posting 23 points, six rebound, five assists and two steals in the win.

“Gordon Hayward is playing at an all-time level,” Watson said. “He’s playing amazing.”

* Utah center Rudy Gobert’s 2.64 blocks per game ranks second only to New Orleans’ Anthony Davis’ 2.81 average.

“I say go into him, take it to the rim and try to be aggressive,” Watson said of wanting his team to attack Gobert. “Just go through his face. Just be aggressive. He’s going to meet you at the rim. You can’t be intimidated. You have to apply force with force. Put the referees in a situation where they have to make a call and trust your basketball instincts.”

Gobert is averaging nearly five fouls per game.

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* Utah won all four games in the series last season and the Suns have lost their past four regular-season visits to Salt Lake City.

Suns guards Devin Booker, Brandon Knight and Bledsoe each are shooting less than 40 percent in their careers against Utah.

* Bledsoe is averaging 24.1 points, 6.6 rebounds, 5.9 assists and 2.0 steals in the past seven games.

* Watson on the mild-mannered technical foul he received Saturday at Golden State: “I’ve said a lot worse on the court. Maybe I’m too nice in my discussions.” It was his second technical foul of the season.

* Former Suns assistant Igor Kokoskov coached Utah’s Monday win against the Lakers in place of Jazz head coach Quin Snyder, who traveled with the team but was ill. “I know my place,” Kokoskov told reporters in Los Angeles after the game.

* T.J. Warren has been doing drill work on the court but he remains out with an unspecified minor head injury. This will be his eighth consecutive missed game.

* With Tuesday’s games, the Suns will be tied with San Antonio for most road games (13) among Western Conference teams. Houston has played 14 on the road.

* Jazz assistant coach Antonio Lang was the Suns’ 29th overall draft pick in 1994 and played 12 games for Phoenix as a rookie.

* Cole Mickelson’s Stone Cole Fact o’ the Day: The Suns have made at least 10 3-pointers in three consecutive games after not doing so once in their first 17 games of the season. They are shooting 41 percent from 3-point range during the three-game stretch after shooting 31.5 percent on 3s previously.

* The last word goes to Watson: “We’re at the point right where the standard is set. It has to be accomplished every day. It’s not even an option. It’s not a conversation. That conversation has been had and it’s done.”

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C: Tyson Chandler … Rudy Gobert

PF: Marquese Chriss …. Boris Diaw

SF: P.J. Tucker … Gordon Hayward

SG: Devin Booker … Rodney Hood

PG: Eric Bledsoe … Dante Exum

Key Jazz reserves: Trey Lyles, Joe Ingles, Shelvin Mack, Joe Johnson, Jeff Withey.

Key Jazz injuries: Derrick Favors (left knee bone bruise), George Hill (left big toe sprain) and Alec Burks (left ankle rehabilitation) were out Monday.

Follow Coro atwww.twitter.com/paulcoro.