1/17 Utah at Sacramento
8:00 pm MT – AT&T SportsNet/League Pass
Opponent record: 13-29
Season series: Tied 0-0
Wednesday’s bout against the Sacramento Kings will be a fun one as the Utah Jazz will have their first chance of the season to go head-to-head with their former starting point guard George Hill. It’s been a frustrating season so far for Hill as his newly joined Kings team finds themselves at dead last in the Western Conference at 13-29 after dropping four straight contests.
The Kings certainly boast some young and promising talent, but it’s obvious that those guys have a long ways to go and that their veterans, such as Hill, aren’t exactly meshing well with the less-experienced players. The Kings are the lowest scoring team in the NBA as they put up just 98 points per game and they don’t have a single player averaging 15 points or more on the year.
The fact that Zach Randolph is leading the team in points with 14.8 per game is probably a pretty telling sign of just how poor Sacramento’s offense is. Utah’s obviously isn’t much to write home about either, but Donovan Mitchell alone might have more offensive firepower than the entire Kings team (I’m obviously being facetious…well sorta).
In other words, Utah should be able to win this match-up pretty handily. The only thing that has me a bit nervous about this game is the fact that it’s on the road where the Jazz have been nothing short of terrible this year. They did manage to steal a game in Washington to elevate their road record to 4-18, but that still does little to instill confidence.
Even so, I think we’ll see the Jazz overcome their road woes for the night and find a way to overwhelm a Sacramento team that’s been lackluster on both ends of the floor.
My Prediction: Jazz Win
Final Score: Utah 110, Sacramento 98