Durant shines in return from 19-game absence, knee injury

However, facing the Trail Blazers first round will not be a walk in the park. "Seems like most second halves these last two games I've just been saying, 'Forget it, just go out there and try some stuff'".

For the second straight year, Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry has the most popular jersey in the National Basketball Association. The result meant nothing to the Warriors, but there were some encouraging signs and expected indifference sprinkled throughout.

Overall, Kevin Durant said it just felt great to play basketball again after going through a hard recovery period, both physically and mentally.

The Jazz are preparing for their playoff battle with the Los Angeles Clippers, but getting a warmup test against the Golden State Warriors will be good for them. Golden State is 39-38-3 against the spread this season and 8-1-1 ATS in their last 10 games.

Durant said he's eager to get back in the flow with his teammates. A Curry three put the Warriors up by 2 with about 95 seconds left in the half. A couple minutes later, he shredded by Jazz point guard Dante Exum with a quick left to right crossover before rising, uncoiling and planting his most powerful dunk since the return.

Durant made a healthy - and triumphant - return to National Basketball Association game action, contributing 16 points, a game-high 10 rebounds and a team-high-tying six assists to the Warriors' 123-101 victory over the short-handed Pelicans.

The Golden State Warriors are looking for their 15th game win in a row.

Hill finished with a team-high 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting, including 5 for 7 from 3-point range, in just 19 minutes. Again, the Warriors will go to the western conference finals, but Durant will struggle with going under or around screens.

The victor of that series will get the Warriors (if they beat the 8th-seeded Blazers) in Round 2. Additionally, Paul reportedly feels some kind of disdain for Curry because of the Warriors superstar's recent success in the last two seasons. This is Utah's first 50-win season in seven seasons.

Letourneau: The turning point in Curry's season came when he asked Steve Kerr to involve him in more pick-and-roll situations after Golden State's loss to Cleveland on Christmas.

Utah got off to a strong start, jumping out to an early six-point lead and then trading buckets with the Warriors.

Oh, and one more thing: The incremental improvement shown by Durant on Monday night came while sharing the court with Stephen Curry for the first time since February 28.

"He's played a lot of minutes this year", Kerr said of Thompson, who averages a team-high 34.1 minutes per game and is tied with Stephen Curry for the most games played at 77.

-Warrior reserve Matt Barnes missed Monday night's game with a right foot/ankle sprain.

The fourth game between Jazz vs Warriors' first ball Tip-off is at 07:30 pm local (07:00 pm MDT) at Oracle Arena in Oakland.