The San Antonio Spurs travel to Salt Lake City to face the Utah Jazz at Vivint Smart Home Arena on Friday.

The Spurs (23-31) have really struggled away from home this season, posting a 9-19 record. That's sadly become common for this team over recent years, performing spectacularly at home and playing subpar basketball on the road. The bad news is that the home form hasn't been that much better this season and it has San Antonio in a major hole. They now find themselves six games back of the eight-seed in the west and that's quite the hill to climb with only 28 games remaining. That would end a 20-year playoff streak and it has many people talking about how much longer DeMar DeRozan, LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Popovich will stick around on this sinking ship.

The Jazz (36-18) were one of the hottest teams heading into the All-Star break and they're hopeful that they can carry over that form over the final few months. In fact, they come into this matchup winning four-straight games which gives them 25 wins in their last 31 games in total. That's obviously one of the best stretches by any team all season long and it's scary to think that things are just starting to come together. Mike Conley was brought in from Memphis and he's finally been playing well the last two weeks before the break. If they can get him to return to his Memphis form with all of these talented defensive weapons behind him, this could be a darkhorse in the west come playoff time. What also makes this team dangerous is their home form, posting a 20-5 record at VSHA this season.

These teams played once earlier this season, with San Antonio prevailing, 127-120, on January 29. Prior to that, the Jazz won six of their previous eight games over the Spurs.