The Utah Jazz still have a chance to earn a spot in the Western Conference play-in tournament, but Wednesday’s road game with the struggling San Antonio Spurs has become a near-must-win situation.

The Jazz (35-40) are in 12th place in the West, 1 1/2 games behind the Dallas Mavericks and two games in arrears of ninth-place Los Angeles Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder with seven games to play in the regular season. Utah has dropped four straight to fall out of the play-in bracket and can ill afford to lose to San Antonio (19-56), which has been long eliminated from postseason consideration.

After playing the Spurs, Utah’s final six games are against teams that have either clinched a playoff berth or are in position to do so. Wednesday’s game begins a three-game road trip for the Jazz that will be followed by stops in Boston and Brooklyn.

Utah’s most recent game was a 117-103 setback at home to Phoenix on Monday. The Jazz came back from a double-digit deficit to take the lead late in the third quarter before falling apart in the fourth, when they were outscored 33-22.

Lauri Markkanen had 25 points and nine rebounds to lead Utah on Monday, with Walker Kessler adding 18 points, eight rebounds and seven blocks, Talen Horton-Tucker hitting for 16 points and Kelly Olynyk scoring 10.

“You can only control what you can control,” Kessler said. “Understanding that as long as we maintain who we are and not let that discourage us and maintain the character of this team (is what’s important). We show up every night, play our tails off, and never give up.”

San Antonio has also dropped four straight, all on the road. The latest setback in the Spurs’ forgettable campaign was a 137-93 thrashing at the hands of Boston on Sunday, San Antonio’s sixth loss in its past seven outings.

“We played well for about a quarter, but after that, I thought we just gave in,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “I thought we embarrassed ourselves by giving in the way we did. But the Celtics had a lot to do with that.”

Zach Collins led San Antonio with 21 points and seven rebounds in Sunday’s loss while Malaki Branham scored 15 points, Sandro Mamukelashvili hit for 13 and Tre Jones had 11. The Spurs played without starters Jeremy Sochan (sore right knee) for the fourth time in five games and Keldon Johnson, who was out with a right foot injury.

Of those two, Johnson has the best chance of playing Wednesday versus Utah.

San Antonio clawed to within six points early in the third period but that seemed to wake up the Celtics, who finished the period with a 24-11 run and were never again challenged. Boston pushed its lead to as many as 47 late in the game.

“(Boston) caught fire, and we couldn’t recover,” Collins said. “I think we tried to get back into it. Maybe we did give in. We’ve definitely got to watch the film. If you lose by 40 there’s probably a lot of things that went wrong.”

San Antonio has beaten Utah in two of the three games between the teams this season.

–Field Level Media

Star guard Damian Lillard is done for the season, with the Portland Trail Blazers choosing to shut him down as he nurses a calf injury, Bleacher Report reported Tuesday.

The news comes on the heels of a report by The Athletic on Saturday that the Trail Blazers were leaning toward sitting him for the remainder of the season as a precaution. Portland has seven regular-season games remaining.

The seven-time All-Star has been dealing with tightness in his calf and missed the Blazers’ past three games, including a Sunday/Monday back-to-back against Oklahoma City and New Orleans.

The Blazers (32-43) lost all three games and have dropped nine of their past 10. While not mathematically out of contention for a spot in the Western Conference play-in tournament, Portland sits 13th in the standings and is very likely out of the running with fellow starters Jerami Grant (quadriceps), Jusuf Nurkic (knee) and Anfernee Simons (foot) also sidelined.

Lillard, 32, has spent his entire 11-year NBA career with the Blazers, starting all 769 games he’s played. He has career averages of 25.2 points, 6.7 assists and 4.2 rebounds per game and ranks sixth all-time with 2,387 3-point baskets.

He was named an All-Star in 2022-23 and finished with a career-high 32.2 points per game plus 7.3 assists and 4.8 rebounds in 58 games. It was a bounce-back from a forgettable 2021-22, when he played just 29 games due to an abdominal injury and averaged 24.0 ppg.

–Field Level Media

The jumbled state of the Western Conference postseason picture ultimately cleared LeBron James’ outlook about returning to the Los Angeles Lakers for the stretch run.

“To hell with the play-in — we actually can be a top-(six) seed,” James said. “That definitely changed my mindset on me coming back and trying to be a part of this.”

On Sunday, James came back from a 13-game absence, scoring a team-high 19 points in his first action since recovering from a tendon injury in his right foot. While it ultimately wasn’t enough in the Lakers’ 118-108 home loss to Chicago, teammates figure James will be primed for more when Los Angeles visits the Bulls on Wednesday night.

“I just know coming off of injury, you’re kind of thinking about it, testing it out,” Lakers forward Anthony Davis said. “But he looked well on the floor, played well, had a block. … I’m pretty sure Wednesday, he’ll be himself.”

Sunday’s defeat snapped a three-game winning streak for the Lakers (37-38), who entered Tuesday in ninth place in the West. Before play Tuesday, all that separated the conference’s sixth-place team and 10th-place team was 1 1/2 games.

Chicago (36-39) is in similar straits in the East, entering Tuesday as the No. 10 seed and in possession of the final play-in spot. With seven regular-season games remaining, the Bulls hold a three-game lead on the Washington Wizards for the final slot in the play-in.

The Bulls were unable to sweep a three-game West Coast road trip Monday, losing 124-112 to the Los Angeles Clippers. Chicago allowed the Clippers to shoot 59.3 percent from the field and 50 percent (20-for-40) from long range.

“We knew going in that we were going to be in situations where we were going to have to protect the rim and then scramble and rotate out,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said. “We’ve really been pretty good most of the year on closeouts, and we didn’t do a good job (Monday) night. Things got opened up. We were late helping, late rotating. I didn’t think our communication on our rotations was great.”

The performance was in contrast to a more disciplined Bulls’ effort on D against the Lakers in the same building Sunday.

“We weren’t aggressive enough, physical enough,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said Sunday. “I thought (the Bulls) were great defensively on that side.”

The Bulls are aiming to sweep the season series from the Lakers for the second straight season.

To do so, they know they’ll quickly need to put the frustrations from the Clippers game behind them.

“We didn’t bring no rhythm whatsoever,” Chicago leading scorer DeMar DeRozan said. “They were hot and stayed hot. We were a step slow. We didn’t give ourselves a chance.”

Alex Caruso (foot soreness) and Javonte Green (knee soreness) missed the game for the Bulls. Both players are listed as questionable for Wednesday.

Zach LaVine (23 points), DeMar DeRozan (21) and Nikola Vucevic (20) led Chicago offensively against the Clippers.

“We got seven (games) left,” DeRozan said. “We gotta start a rhythm.”

–Field Level Media

The Philadelphia 76ers return home on Wednesday looking to rebound from a difficult road trip as they welcome a Dallas Mavericks team playing for its postseason life.

Philadelphia (49-26) dropped its third straight game with a 116-111 loss Monday in Denver, the 76ers’ fourth defeat in their last five games.

Most Valuable Player contender Joel Embiid and James Harden both missed the matchup. However, Tyrese Maxey’s 29 points helped the short-handed 76ers rally from as many as 22 points down in the second half to pull within one possession in the closing minute.

“I love our team, and I’m going to keep saying it,” Philadelphia coach Doc Rivers said postgame Monday. “We’re not worried. … We’ve got to respect everybody, but we like our team. We’ve just got to get healthy.”

Embiid exited Philadelphia’s last win — a 116-91 rout of Chicago last Wednesday — due to calf soreness. He returned with a 46-point, nine-rebound, eight-assist effort Friday at Golden State and posted a 28-point, 10-rebound double-double the next night in Phoenix, but Rivers opted to sit the center at Denver.

Harden, meanwhile, has missed four straight due to a Achilles injury. Overall, he has sat out five of the 76ers’ last six.

Maxey has stepped up to fill the scoring void on the perimeter with Harden sidelined. Maxey scored 37 points Saturday at Phoenix and has hit for at least 21 in each of the last six contests.

Maxey scored 29 points earlier this month when Philadelphia last saw Dallas, a 133-126 Mavericks’ win at home March 2.

The Mavericks (37-39) have been on a steady decline since, going 4-8, but they come into Philadelphia having snapped a four-game skid with a 127-104 rout of Indiana on Monday.

Luka Doncic went for 25 points, while Jaden Hardy came off the bench to score 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the floor.

The Mavericks also got 10 points and a pair of blocked shots in just over 13 minutes from JaVale McGee. The veteran center logged his most minutes since Feb. 10, providing depth off the bench in the win.

“Great energy to have him out there,” Doncic said of McGee, via Mavs.com. “He helped us a lot.”

Dallas’ slide dropped the Mavericks outside of the Western Conference’s top 10. They continue a pivotal, five-game road swing with the third contest on Wednesday, trailing Oklahoma City for the West’s final play-in spot.

“I thought the focus this morning, the talk, the walk-through, you could tell guys were different,” Dallas coach Jason Kidd said Monday. “So with that, just playing that many bodies in a short amount of time, I thought the guys did a great job.”

The Mavericks will look to maintain that “different” approach in this late-season push for the postseason.

Philadelphia, meanwhile, has its own postseason aspirations over the last seven games. The 76ers trail Boston by three games entering Tuesday action for the No. 2 seed in the East.

Cleveland is making a push behind Philadelphia, sitting just 1 1/2 games behind the Sixers in fourth place.

–Field Level Media

On Monday, the Rockets were the cure for what was ailing the New York Knicks, who blew out of their recent rough patch by blowing out Houston.

The scuffling Brooklyn Nets are also looking for a similar outcome Wednesday night when they host the worst team in the Western Conference.

Brooklyn (40-35) could take the floor back in the play-in tournament, if the Miami Heat lose in Toronto on Tuesday. The Nets also will attempt to stop a four-game home losing streak.

Brooklyn is in this position because it was unable to sustain a hot streak earlier this month. The Nets won five of six — including a rout in Houston — from March 3-12 but are 1-6 in their past seven games.

The Nets have faced double-digit deficits in each of those games, including Sunday when they were outplayed for the final 30-plus minutes of a 119-106 loss in Orlando. That loss came on the second night of a back-to-back; Brooklyn stormed back from a 14-point deficit in the first half for a dominating 129-100 win in Miami on Saturday.

“Tough back-to-back to use,” Brooklyn coach Jacque Vaughn said. “A lot of learning lessons coming out of this. It’s a tough one. We come off a good win and the message to the guys is we are going to have to earn single game we get. No one is going to give it to us. We have to go get it.”

The only Net to have anything against Orlando was Mikal Bridges, whose 44 points were one shy of his career-high set Feb. 15 at home versus Miami. While Bridges shot 13 of 22, Brooklyn’s other four starters of Spencer Dinwiddie, Nic Claxton, Cameron Johnson and Dorian Finney-Smith were a combined 9-for-35.

Dinwiddie was held to two points on 0-of-11 shooting vs. the Magic and went 4-for-22 from the floor combined over the weekend.

Houston (18-58) heads to Brooklyn on a six-game losing streak. The Rockets allowed at least 130 points for the third time in their latest skid and for the 14th time overall in a 137-115 loss at the Knicks.

Houston allowed the Knicks to shoot 58.1 percent and it marked their second-highest opposing field goal percentage of the season. It also was the 17th time the Rockets allowed an opponent to shoot at least 50 percent.

“Our energy fell off in the second half,” Rockets coach Stephen Silas said. “I could see guys were getting tired. I could see it in their body language. But, that is the NBA. We were hyped up at the beginning of the game, flying around, doing some really good stuff. Then I think the back-to-back did catch up to us.”

The Rockets also continued to falter behind the 3-point line, as their 7-of-26 showing followed a 6-for-25 performance Sunday in Cleveland. Jalen Green produced his 14th 30-point game of the season Sunday but was held to 19 on 4-of-11 shooting vs. the Knicks.

Kevin Porter Jr. led the Rockets with 26 points against the Knicks, his fifth 20-point showing in his past eight contests.

–Field Level Media

Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler has been ruled out of Tuesday’s game against the Toronto Raptors due to neck soreness.

Guard Kyle Lowry is listed as questionable due to left knee soreness for the Heat (40-35). He is expected to play on Tuesday and sit out Wednesday’s game against the New York Knicks, multiple reports said. Lowry spent nine seasons with Toronto before coming to Miami.

Butler, 33, boasts team-best averages in points (22.8), assists (5.1) and steals (1.9) in 60 games (all starts) this season.

A six-time All-Star, Butler has contributed 18.1 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.2 assists in 750 career games (645 starts) with the Chicago Bulls, Minnesota Timberwolves, Philadelphia 76ers and Heat.

–Field Level Media

The Milwaukee Bucks continue their chase for the No. 1 overall seed in the East as they visit the play-in hopeful Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night.

Milwaukee (54-21) got back on track on the road Monday night, defeating the Detroit Pistons 126-117 without Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jrue Holiday.

A season-high 34 points from Khris Middleton led the Bucks along with a pair of double-doubles: 24 points and 14 rebounds from Brook Lopez and 21 points with 14 rebounds from Bobby Portis. Jevon Carter also added 22 points, shooting 6-for-8 from beyond the arc.

“With Giannis out, I knew I had to be aggressive,” Middleton said. “I had to get to my spots and when I got there, I’ve either got to shoot or find the open man.”

Indiana (33-43) hosts Milwaukee on a three-game losing skid after falling to the Dallas Mavericks 127-104 at home on Monday night. The Pacers, without their star trio of Tyrese Haliburton, Buddy Hield and Myles Turner, were led by rookie Bennedict Mathurin’s 26 points.

“They got going, and they got some real firepower. We need to have more resistance,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said. “He (Mathurin) needs to learn the responsibility of being a starter, guarding a top player and carrying a scoring load. The first 65 games of the season weren’t like that, it’s a great opportunity.”

Holiday was not with the team in Detroit due to personal reasons while Antetokounmpo missed due to right knee soreness.

Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer said before the Detroit game he wasn’t sure if Holiday would be able to rejoin the team for Wednesday’s game but the club didn’t list the point guard on Tuesday’s injury report. Antetokounmpo is listed as probable while Middleton (knee manaagement) is questionable.

Meanwhile, Milwaukee got its first minutes from Goran Dragic on Monday after being acquired and returning from a knee injury. Meyers Leonard, however, remains out with left calf soreness.

For Indiana, Haliburton (ankle, elbow) and Chris Duarte (ankle) have been ruled out, while Turner (ankle) is questionable.

Hield (non-COVID illness) is no longer on Indiana’s injury list.

Antetokounmpo leads the Bucks with 31.1 points and 11.7 rebounds per game. Holiday leads with 7.3 assists and 1.2 steals while Brook Lopez blocks 2.5 shots per game.

Haliburton leads Indiana with 20.7 points, 10.4 assists as well as 1.6 steals per game. Myles Turner leads the charge down low, coming in second with 18 points and leading with 7.5 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game.

This will be the fourth and final matchup between the teams as the Pacers look for a 2-2 split. Indiana ended Milwaukee’s 10-game winning streak against them in the previous matchup in Milwaukee on March 16, 139-123.

The Bucks still hold the all-time series lead 113-92.

Milwaukee has the best record in the league, two games up on Boston for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference with seven games remaining, heading into Tuesday’s action.

The Pacers are currently 12th in the East, with just six games left for them. They’re four games back in the loss column to Chicago for the 10th and final play-in spot, with the Wizards in front of them as well.

–Field Level Media

Phoenix Suns star forward Kevin Durant is expected to return from a 10-game absence due to a sprained ankle for Wednesday’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, The Athletic reported.

Suns coach Monty Williams, however, wasn’t ready to commit to Durant’s return when addressing reporters on Tuesday.

“Nothing’s changed,” Williams said. “He’s just doing a bit more work on the floor. We’ll have an official update when we have one.”

Durant, 34, was acquired from the Brooklyn Nets on Feb. 9 while he was sidelined due to a knee injury.

He returned to action on March 1 and played in three games for Phoenix, posting averages of 26.7 points, 7.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game while shooting 69.0 percent from the floor and 53.8 percent from 3-point range.

Durant has averaged 29.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and 5.2 assists in 42 games (all starts) this season with the Nets and Suns.

A 2013-14 NBA MVP and 13-time All-Star, Durant has contributed 27.3 points, 7.1 rebounds and 4.3 assists in 981 career games (978 starts) with the Seattle SuperSonics/Oklahoma City Thunder, Golden State Warriors, Nets and Suns.

–Field Level Media