The Hornets longest road trip of the season finally comes to an end tonight in Utah. Game tips at 8 Central.

The Jazz are 44-25 on the season and 27-8 at home. They’ve lost three of their last five games, but have won five straight in Salt Lake. Last night they were in Phoenix, losing 100-110 to the Suns. Carlos Boozer led the Jazz with 23 points and 16 rebounds.

These guys are a little banged up right now: Andrei Kirilenko has missed three of their last four games with a calf injury, and Mehmet Okur left last night’s game with a stomach illness. Deron Williams is also suffering from a variety of ailments (wrist, shoulder, ankle). He’s been playing only about 30 minutes per game recently and has struggled in his last two.

The Hornets are coming off Thursday’s 80-93 loss to the Nuggets in Denver which dropped them to 1-3 on the road trip and 33-37 overall. Chris Paul is due back from injury any game now (though probably not tonight), while Peja Stojakovic remains sidelines with an abdominal strain.

This is the third of four meetings between the Hornets and Jazz this season. The series is tied at 1-1. Chris Paul got all heroic in Utah on January 4, taking over down the stretch to nab a 91-87 win for the Hornets. The Jazz returned the favor in New Orleans last month, winning 98-90 behind Paul Millsap’s 24 and 8 off the bench.

Numbers:

Pace: Jazz 95.4 (13th), Hornets 95.1 (15th)
Offensive Efficiency: Jazz 107.7 (8th), Hornets 104.4 (16th)
Defensive Efficiency: Jazz 102.8 (10th), Hornets 106.5 (19th)

Linkage:

• Standings: The Hornets are 9 games out of the 8-spot with 12 games left. I’ll stop counting now.
• Rival bloggers: Salt City Hoops (THN) | SLC Dunk | True Blue Jazz

(Many thanks to Dariusz for today’s banner featuring Jamal Mashburn. Be sure to check out more of Dariusz’s designs in our Wallpapers vault.)