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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Charlotte coach Mike Dunlap said Kidd-Gilchrist was moving his extremities and talking as he was wheeled off the floor. In a statement, the Bobcats said Kidd-Gilchrist had precautionary X-rays and a CT scan, all of which were negative for head and neck injuries.

Kidd-Gilchrist, the second overall pick in last year’s draft, went up to defend Toney Douglas’ layup attempt early in the fourth quarter. Taylor swooped in and his right hip connected with the back of Kidd-Gilchrist’s head.

Taylor heard Kidd-Gilchrist talking to the medical personnel, but he didn’t speak to Kidd-Gilchrist directly.

Kidd-Gilchrist lay motionless for several minutes. The athletic training staffs from both teams came out to check on him, and the entire Charlotte bench eventually surrounded him.

“I didn’t see anything, it happened so fast,” Taylor said.

The Rockets defeated the Bobcats 109-95.

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Phoenix Suns vs. Oklahoma City Thunder
When: 8:00 PM ET, Monday, December 31, 2012
Where: Chesapeake Energy Arena, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Prediction: Thunder 111, Suns 98.

Oddsmakers currently have the Thunder listed as 12½-point favorites versus the Suns, while the game’s total is sitting at 202.

Suns: Luis Scola had a season-high 33 points and Goran Dragic returned from a one-game absence (hip) to post his third double-double of the season with 16 points and 12 assists against Minnesota. While Dragic essentially cleared himself to play on Saturday, center Jermaine O’Neal hasn’t been as bold. O’Neal is being plagued by back spasms and may remain on the bench for Monday’s tilt as well.

The Suns were a 111-107 loser in their most recent outing on the road against the Timberwolves. They covered the 8.5-point spread as underdogs, while the total score (218) made winners of OVER bettors.

Team record: 11-20 SU, 13-17-1 ATS
Current streak: lost 5 straight games.

The total has gone OVER in 6 of last 7 games when playing on the road against Oklahoma City
The total has gone OVER in 6 of last 7 games when playing Oklahoma City
The total has gone UNDER in 7 of last 10 games
is 4-1-1 ATS in its last 6 games on the road

When playing on Monday are 5-5
Before playing Philadelphia are 5-5
After playing Minnesota are 7-3
After a loss are 1-9

Oklahoma City: As strange as it sounds, Durant’s 26 points were actually a decided step down from his recent totals. The three-time NBA scoring champion had been averaging a gaudy 36.75 over his previous four games. Big man Serge Ibaka has been providing a presence defensively, collecting double digits in rebounds in his last two games while registering five blocks in two of his previous four.

In their last action, Oklahoma City was a 124-94 winner on the road against the Rockets. They covered the 4.5-point spread as favorites, while the combined score (218) was profitable news for OVER bettors.

Team record: 23-6 SU, 16-11-2 ATS
Current streak: won 2 straight games.

is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games when playing Phoenix
is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games at home
is 14-2 SU in its last 16 games
The total has gone OVER in 6 of last 7 games when playing Phoenix

When playing on Monday are 9-1
Before playing Brooklyn are 5-5
After playing Houston are 10-0
After a win are 9-1

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Clippers (26-18, 11-10 away) vs Pacers (25-18, 13-6 home)
Coverage: FOX WEST
When: 7:00 PM ET, March 20, 2012
Where: Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, IN

After dropping three of four to open their six-game homestand, the Clippers (26-18) finished that grueling eight-day stretch with four-point victories over Houston and Detroit. While Los Angeles averaged just 91.0 points on 40.5 percent shooting in those wins, Paul made half of his 30 shots and totaled 42 points.

He scored 12 of his 23 in the final 2:42 of Saturday’s 95-91 win over the Rockets, then had nine of his 19 in overtime Sunday in an 87-83 victory over the Pistons.

The All-Star point guard is among the NBA’s best with an average of 6.9 points in the fourth quarter.

“You’d be hard-pressed to find a better guy with the ball late in the game than Chris in this league,” said coach Vinny Del Negro, whose team next gets back-to-back days off April 20-21.

While the Clippers sit 1 1/2 games back of the Los Angeles Lakers for the Pacific Division lead, the Pacers (25-18) have virtually no shot of catching the league-best Chicago Bulls in the Central Division after losing six of eight following a season-best 6-0 run.

Indiana has scored over 100 points twice in its last eight games after doing so in each of its previous five.

“Our offense just isn’t working,” forward Danny Granger said Saturday after the Pacers were swept in a home-and-home set by New York with a 102-88 home loss. “We’re not getting the job done. Our goal is to win games, and we’re not going to win games this way.”

Perhaps the addition of veteran guard Leandro Barbosa will provide a spark. Acquired from Toronto on Thursday for a second-round draft pick and cash, Barbosa is expected to make his Pacers debut Tuesday. He scored a team-high 19 points for the Raptors in a 103-91 road loss to the Clippers on Jan. 22.

While Indiana needs to get its offense in gear, it faces a stiff test against All-Star forward Blake Griffin, who had a career-high 47 points in the last meeting, a 114-107 home win for the Clippers on Jan. 17, 2011.

Given the outside shot by the Pacers, Griffin hit a number of tough jumpers and made a career-best 19 field goals while also grabbing 14 rebounds.

Griffin had 12 points with eight boards as the Clippers were routed 107-80 in their last visit to Indianapolis on Nov. 18, 2010.

The Pacers have won four in a row against Western Conference foes and are 9-3 against teams outside the East.

The Clippers have won 11 of 15 against the East, taking four of six on the road.

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