Utah Jazz at Sacramento Kings: Keys to the Game

Key Performer – Rudy Gobert

Perhaps the players in the league that have benefited the most from the DeMarcus Cousins trade when facing the Kings have been the opposing Western Conference centers. In the past, facing off against Boogie was an enormous assignment that would have taken a large toll on even the best of the best.

To be quite honest though, I quite looked forward to seeing Gobert and Cousins do battle, so it will be a bit of a shame to not get to witness it in today’s game (luckily I’ll get my fix when the Jazz host New Orleans tomorrow). Nevertheless, now that Cousins is out of the picture, the Kings have been starting a guy that Jazz fans are all too familiar with, and quite frankly, not the least bit afraid of – Kosta Koufos.

Especially considering that in Sacramento’s most recent bout, Koufos finished an appalling 0-of-7 from the field in 24 minutes of play, Rudy Gobert ought to be licking his chops. There’s simply no way that a guy like Koufos will have much luck slowing an elite center such as Gobert and even less of a chance that Kosta will have much success scoring over the Stifle Tower.

To be perfectly honest, it’s been a decent amount of time since Gobert had one of his monster games and given today’s favorable match-up, we may very well see it this afternoon. That’s not to say Rudy hasn’t been solid of late, but with Koufos offering little resistance for a stud such as Gobert, I’m definitely expecting him to go off in an even bigger way and be Utah’s key performer against the Kings.