Utah Jazz at Sacramento Kings: Keys to the Game

Given the Sacramento Kings’ struggles so far in the post-Cousins era, the Utah Jazz should be more than capable of coming away with an important win today.

The Utah Jazz looked much more like their old selves in Friday’s win over the Brooklyn Nets, albeit against a less than daunting opponent. George Hill’s 34-point outpouring was a thrilling sight for Jazz fans to see and hopefully he can leave any remnants of a slump far behind him for the daunting stretch that lies just around the corner for the Jazz.

Luckily, Utah still has two more games against less than formidable foes before things really pick up. They’ll play the first of those this afternoon as they visit the Sacramento Kings at the Golden 1 Center.

It’s been an interesting road for the Kings after the DeMarcus Cousins trade as they initially turned some heads by coming out after the All-Star break with an impressive win over the solid Denver Nuggets, causing some to believe that perhaps their addition by subtraction move would work out.

However, since then it’s been three straight losses for the Kings including their most recent which was to the dismal 10-win Brooklyn Nets. Thus, it’s likely that Sacramento will undergo some growing pains as they adjust to life after the departure of their superstar center.

The silver lining for the Kings has to be how poorly the Pelicans have played as well, though. Since Boogie went to New Orleans, they’ve only logged one win and coincidentally it came in the game that Cousins was suspended for exceeding the league limit for technical fouls.

Ironically enough, the Utah Jazz will face both Cousins’ former Kings team today and his current Pelicans team tomorrow, so they’ll get a good taste of both worlds. Yet, with the Kings clearly struggling without Cousins, there’s a good chance the Jazz will be able to extend their winning steak to two as long as they take care of business in the following areas against Sacramento today.