Al Jefferson had 22 points and eight rebounds to help Utah keep its playoff hopes alive with a 96-80 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night, setting up one more must-win game in the season finale on Wednesday.

“It comes down to one game now,” Jefferson said. “It’s a big game. The only thing we can worry about is what we can control, going out there and trying to take care of the game, and trying to win, and just leave the rest up to the Lakers, I guess.”

Mo Williams had 15 points and seven assists for the Jazz, who needed a win to avoid being eliminated in the Western Conference playoff race.

To get into the playoffs, the Jazz need to win at Memphis on Wednesday and for the Los Angeles Lakers to lose at home against Houston that night. Utah owns the tiebreaker after beating the Lakers two out of three times this season.

“I guess I have to try and get in touch with Kevin McHale and tell him to handle it for me,” said Jefferson, who played for the Rockets’ coach when both were in Minnesota.

Derrick Williams had 18 points and six rebounds for the Timberwolves, who were missing center Nikola Pekovic because of a bruised left calf.

The Jazz entered the night clinging to the postseason picture, down 1½ games to the Lakers with two to play.

For a team that could have as many as nine expiring contracts this summer, the Jazz are desperately chasing one more playoff appearance. Jefferson, Paul Millsap, Mo Williams and Randy Foye all could be looking for new teams when the season ends, with a bevy of young players waiting to assume larger roles next year.

They’ve won nine of their last 11 games since a four-game losing streak in the middle of last month threatened to bury them.

“Talk about this group of guys, man, the character that they have, there was no quit in this group,” coach Tyrone Corbin said. “The guys just continued to work and put ourselves in a position to get back when we were struggling there.”

Utah didn’t play all that well early, but it was just good enough to stay on top of a Timberwolves team that is slogging to the finish of another long season. The Wolves shot just 33 percent in the first quarter, and without Pekovic patrolling the paint they didn’t grab an offensive rebound until late in the third quarter.

A 13-4 run by Minnesota cut Utah’s lead to three points late in the third quarter, but once again the Wolves had no answer for Jefferson. The former Wolf scored 40 against the Wolves in a 107-100 win on Friday night in Salt Lake City and continued to attack the team’s soft middle on Monday night. He scored six straight points after Minnesota’s run to give the Jazz some breathing room again, and they never looked back.

Foye scored 14 points for the Jazz.

“You want to finish up better than that,” coach Rick Adelman said of the home finale. “I know they had something to play for, but it was our last home game. I thought we should have had better effort, but we didn’t.”

The Timberwolves have one game left in what has been a miserable, injury-plagued season. They will enter this offseason as they have every one since 2004 — with a spot in the lottery coming in June and plenty of questions about the roster and who will be back to lead it. Owner Glen Taylor has been mum on president David Kahn’s future. Kahn has a team option on his contract for next season.

Coach Rick Adelman has two years left on his deal, but has considered stepping down to help his wife, Mary Kay, who is being treated for seizures. Her condition caused him to miss 11 games earlier this season. She is due to meet with doctors again shortly after the season ends and Adelman is hoping her condition will continue to stabilize. Before the game, Adelman said he was going forward with the idea that he would be back next season and hoped to have a definitive answer in the next couple of weeks.

“I think what happens with Mary Kay or any of that, that certainly would turn things in a different direction,” Adelman said. “Right now I don’t see that (happening), but I’m going to wait and see until we talk to the doctors and see what direction they’ve decided we need to go at this point. Then we’ll move from there.”

Game notes

Wolves PG Ricky Rubio had a quiet night with six points on 2-for-9 shooting and four assists. … The Wolves finish the season with a game at San Antonio on Wednesday. … It was just the 13th win on the road for the Jazz this season. They’ve won three straight away from home.

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“You could see the look on everybody’s face change,” Jazz guard Randy Foye said. “Nobody said anything. It was just everybody had that look on their face, ‘You know what time it is. You know what we have to do.’ ”

While the Warriors had a chance to seal a playoff spot, Utah seized the opportunity for itself.

Mo Williams hit a huge 3-pointer in the final seconds to finish with 25 points, Al Jefferson added 19 points and 12 rebounds, and the Jazz regained the Western Conference’s final playoff position over the Lakers by holding off the Warriors 97-90 on Sunday night for a monumental road win.

“I can’t say enough about this group of guys,” Corbin said. “This was all about them and them wanting it, and the way they came out. Although we made some mistakes in the game, everybody laid everything they had in them out there on the floor.”

Williams’ 3-pointer with 13.4 seconds remaining put Utah ahead by six and spoiled Golden State’s shot to clinch a playoff berth in front of a 29th sellout crowd of 19,596. The Jazz moved a half-game ahead of the Lakers for the eighth seed. Utah also owns the tiebreaker after winning the season series 2-1 against the Lakers, who lost to the Clippers 109-95 earlier in the day.

“Four games left. We’ve got have them,” Jefferson said.

Stephen Curry scored 17 of his 22 points in the first half and Klay Thompson had 20 points for the Warriors, who were trying to clinch a postseason spot for the first time since 2007 and just the second in 19 years.

Now that celebration will have to wait.

David Lee, who has never been to the playoffs in his eight NBA seasons, added 21 points and 13 rebounds for Golden State, which was outplayed inside by Utah’s front line of Jefferson, Derrick Favors (12 points, 13 rebounds) and Paul Millsap (11 points, six rebounds) most of the way.

“We still control our own situation, which is good, but you don’t want to have this feeling again,” Curry said. “We’ve got to get it done and there’s no excuse for us not to.”

The Jazz looked every bit like a team playing with everything at stake, just as Corbin had hoped before the game. They outhustled and outmuscled Golden State for most of 48 minutes, holding off one final flurry for a critical win in front of the an Oracle Arena crowd eager to celebrate.

After the Warriors went down 11 points late in the fourth quarter, Thompson and Curry each hit a 3-pointer to cut Utah’s lead to 91-86 with 3:28 to play. Reserve Draymond Green followed by tipping in Lee’s miss to bring the Warriors within three.

Jefferson hit a jumper that silenced fans standing all over the arena, then Lee answered with a layup to bring the crowd back to full throat. Golden State forced another stop, but wasted the offensive opportunity.

Green had his layup blocked by Favors, who keyed Utah’s defense all game, but got the ball back and tossed it out to Jarrett Jack — who missed a contested 3-pointer with the shot clock winding down. The Jazz isolated Williams at the top of the arc against Green, and he drained the shot that sent Utah home with a monumental win.

“I don’t know what’s going on with them, to be honest,” Williams said of Golden State’s playoff-starved crowd. “We’ve got enough going on with us.”

The Warriors are just a game ahead of Houston — which owns the tiebreaker after winning the season series 3-1 — for the West’s sixth seed. Golden State still needs any combination of two wins or losses by the conference’s ninth team to seal a playoff berth.

“They played like a team that their playoff lives depended on this game,” Warriors coach Mark Jackson said. “We played, at times, like a team that had a cushion.”

Curry kept the Warriors close by scoring the first nine points during his team’s erratic start, which included four turnovers in the game’s first 4:12. He made his first three shots from the arc, the last giving Golden State a 38-29 lead midway through the second quarter.

The Jazz erased that deficit in fewer than four minutes behind a 17-4 run capped by Gordon Hayward’s 3-pointer. After going ahead by 10 points on consecutive deep 3s by Foye and Williams, Utah held on for a 56-48 halftime lead.

Golden State sliced Utah’s lead to a point in the third quarter before the Jazz took control again. Jefferson converted a layup over Jack to start a three-point play that highlighted a 10-1 spurt that put Utah up 75-65, a deficit the Warriors never could overcome.

“No way,” Favors said, “did I want to see them celebrate.”

Game notes

Utah won the season series 2-1. … Jazz reserve F Alec Burks sat out with a sprained right ankle, which occurred during Utah’s win over New Orleans on Friday night. He is day to day. … The Warriors signed G Scott Machado from Santa Cruz of the NBA Development League to a 10-day contract.

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Parker had 22 points in his return from an eight-game absence, Tim Duncan added 19 points and 16 rebounds and the San Antonio Spurs escaped with a 104-97 overtime victory against the Utah Jazz on Friday night.

Amid cries of “MVP,” Parker capped the scoring with a pair of free throws with 17.2 seconds left in overtime. He went 8 for 13 from the field and had five assists after missing eight games with a sprained left ankle. The Spurs were 6-2 in his absence, but struggled offensively.

“Tony was a little bit shy in the first half; he was just trying to feel his way a little bit,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “The game got tight at the end in regulation and then in overtime, and he was Tony Parker. Like I said, up until the time he got hurt, there wasn’t a point guard in the league playing better than Tony Parker.”

Parker had six points and two assists in overtime, including a cross-court pass to Kawhi Leonard for a 3-pointer to open overtime.

Leonard finished with 21 points, including five in overtime, and Danny Green had 15 points for San Antonio (53-16), which remains 2 1/2 games ahead of Oklahoma City in the West.

Mo Williams scored 23 points, Al Jefferson had 18 and Alec Burks 14 for Utah (34-35), which has lost three straight and dropped two games behind the Los Angeles Lakers for the West’s final playoff berth.

“I can live with this,” Jefferson said. “It is the end of the season and we cannot afford to lose one game. We played a tough team on their home floor and had a chance to win for the first time in a long time. The energy and the effort was there for all 48 minutes plus. If we continue to play the way we did tonight for the rest of these 12 games, we have a great chance.”

Utah almost ruined what became a historic night for Duncan and Popovich.

Duncan’s 29th double-double of the season gives him 13,113 career rebounds, moving him past Shaquille O’Neal (13,099) for 13th on the all-time list.

Popovich recorded his 900th career victory, becoming the 12th coach in NBA history to accomplish the feat and joining former Utah coach Jerry Sloan as the only coaches to do so with one team.

“(The ankle) feels good; it’s more my cardio, my wind,” Parker said. “I’m definitely (tired). It was a hard game; playoff intensity. Utah is definitely fighting hard to get that eight spot.

“It was big win for a lot of reasons. For Pop, No. 900; for Timmy passing Shaq; and me, I’m just happy to be back and hopefully we can keep it going now.”

While Parker’s return helped settle San Antonio late on offense, it was the team’s defense that sealed the win.

The Spurs held the Jazz to 2-for-8 shooting in overtime after Marvin Williams’ 3 at the buzzer tied the game at 90, drawing a heated tirade from Popovich for the defensive lapse. In the end, however, Popovich was happy with the outcome.

“I thought it was a great game,” he said. “The guys fought hard. Utah’s a team trying to stay in the playoffs and really highly motivated. We ground it out. We just ground it out and found some combinations that work well. A lot of people contributed to that. It was a hell of a win. It’s one of our better wins this year for a lot of reasons.”

Parker made his first attempt, drawing huge applause after hitting a 15-foot jumper 2 minutes into the game. He had only six points in the first half, going 3 for 6 from the field in 17 minutes.

“It’s always tough, because you don’t want to mess with the chemistry,” Parker said. “They’ve been playing very good basketball at home. I was just trying to fit in. In the second half, Pop was calling plays for me. And being aggressive in the fourth quarter, so it came naturally.”

The Spurs had a 12-0 run to take a 16-4 lead with 6:26 left in the first quarter. Tiago Splitter capped the run by tossing in a hook shot after missing an open layup off a bullet pass from Parker.

Parker sat shortly after that pass, sparking a 17-2 run by Utah to close the quarter. San Antonio went scoreless for almost 5 minutes bridging the first and second quarters.

Leonard also had six points in the first half before going 6 for 8 from the field in the second half and overtime, including 3 for 3 on 3s.

“Kawhi’s a stud, he’s not afraid to shoot the ball,” Popovich said. “He knows that he’s got license to play; we went to him a couple of times down the stretch in regulation and he came through.”

Game notes

San Antonio’s victory was its first in overtime against Utah after losing the previous three in series history. . Parker is the only player averaging at least 20 points and seven assists while shooting over 50 percent from the field and 80 percent on free throws. … Popovich trails Don Nelson (1,335), Lenny Wilkens (1,332), Sloan (1,221), Pat Riley (1,210), Phil Jackson (1,155), George Karl (1,122), Larry Brown (1,098), Rich Adelman (994), Bill Fitch (944), Red Auerbach (938) and Dick Motta (935) in career victories. “It’s funny, I played for Don Nelson when he broke the record and now I’m back with Pop,” Stephen Jackson said. “I’m happy for Pop, he deserves it. I’m sure he’s got plenty more to come. He pushed the (postgame celebration) cake in my face and it should have been his face. But I’m happy for him; I’m happy to be a part of it. I’m happy to say that I was able to be coached and play for coach Popovich.” . Parker is the only active player averaging at least 15 points, five assists while shooting over 49 percent from the field for his career. The only other players to do that are Walt Frazier, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and Kevin Johnson. … With its victory Friday, San Antonio joins Miami (31) and Oklahoma City (30) as the only teams with 30 wins at home this season.

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For more news, notes and analysis of the L.A. Clippers, check out the Clippers Report. Blog

The Clippers went 16-0 in December to join the 1995-96 San Antonio Spurs and 1971-72 Lakers as the only teams to go undefeated over a month. Their franchise-record winning streak is the longest since Boston won 19 in a row four years ago.

Caron Butler led the Clippers with 29 points, making all six of his 3-pointers. Chris Paul added 19 points and nine assists to help them maintain the league’s best record at 25-6.

Al Jefferson scored 30 points to lead Utah, which fell victim for the third time during the Clippers’ streak.

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