Utah Jazz at Sacramento Kings: Keys to the Game

The Utah Jazz will look to get a win streak going as they take on the feisty Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night.

For the first time in more nights than I care to think about, the Utah Jazz came out with energy and looked sharp for the majority of 48 minutes in Monday’s win over the New Orleans Pelicans. It was a nice bounce back game after Utah had dropped four of their previous five.

Now, with just eight games left in the regular season and home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs at stake, the Jazz will be in for yet another vital contest on Wednesday night as they visit the Sacramento Kings.

It was a pretty thrilling conclusion last time Utah and Sacramento faced off as Utah sneaked past the Kings in overtime by the skin of their teeth thanks to a Rudy Gobert tip-in off of a George Hill airball. The Kings are a team with little to play for yet they have been consistently coming out to compete night in and night out as evidenced by their incredible comeback win over the Clippers on Sunday.

https://twitter.com/SacramentoKings/status/846205351896608768

So the Jazz will have to come into this game focused and ready to go. Both the Los Angeles Clippers and Oklahoma City Thunder are looming not far behind the Jazz in the Western Conference Standings and are both undoubtedly aspiring to knock Utah out of their current fourth place spot.

Both of those foes also happen to have much easier schedules than the Jazz moving forward, so it will be vital that Utah take advantage of what’s one of their easiest remaining contests as they visit the Kings on Wednesday. With this and every game being so important down the stretch, the Jazz will need to be sharp in every detail, particularly in those that I’ve noted here, if they hope to come away with the win.