Utah Jazz vs. Sacramento Kings: Jazz target ninth straight win, Rubio questionable

As the Utah Jazz move on to game three of their current four-game home stand, they’ll look to keep their win streak alive against the Sacramento Kings.

The Utah Jazz have been on an absolute tear as they’re currently riding an eight-game winning streak and have notched victories in 20 of their last 22 contests. Their most recent win over the Phoenix Suns propelled them to seventh place in the Western Conference and if the Jazz take care of business tonight against the Sacramento Kings and benefit from a New Orleans Pelicans loss to the Houston Rockets, they’ll move up one more spot into sixth this evening.

But first things first, the Jazz can’t overlook the Kings and will need to come out focused tonight. Utah has won both contests over Sacramento this season, but the last one was a bit too close for comfort as the Jazz allowed them to hang around for nearly the entire game and only eked out a seven-point victory.

The Kings will be coming into Utah to play the second game of a back-to-back after defeating the Golden State Warriors last night. Sure, the Warriors were without Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant, who are all dealing with injuries (or resting up for the playoffs, I’ll let you be the judge), but still, any time you can earn a win at Oracle Arena, it’s usually a pretty big confidence booster.

Therefore, the Kings may be somewhat worn out, but will likely also be bringing a little bit of swagger into Salt Lake City after earning a nice win yesterday evening. That may especially be true considering that the win before that was a hard-fought overtime bout over the Miami Heat.

Sacramento is very much considered part of the tanking crowd, but of those teams, they’ve been playing the best basketball of late. Not only have they won two in a row, but they’ve won five of their last ten to elevate their record to 23-47. The Kings have benefited recently from solid play from the likes of Buddy Hield, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Skal Labissiere and De’Aaron Fox. In spite of an overwhelming lack of talent, the young Kings continue to play hungry and, as they’ve shown the past two contests, could pose a threat to a team caught unaware.

Fortunately, I don’t foresee the Jazz being such a team. They’re locked in like perhaps never before this season as they’ve won each of their last six games by 14 points or more and are posting an astounding defensive rating of 85.5 during that stretch. Simply put, the Jazz aren’t fooling around. They’re locking teams down and dominating in all aspects of the game.

And the Kings aren’t exactly a powerhouse offensive, to put it lightly. They’re second to last in the league in points per game at 99.6 and third to last in offensive rating at 101.7. Simply put, with those kind of averages, I suspect that putting up points against the Stifle Tower and the rest of Utah’s stingy defense isn’t exactly going to go well for them this evening.

The one major concern facing the Jazz is that Ricky Rubio, who has been electrifying during Utah’s recent run, is currently listed as questionable for the contest due to a knee contusion. This isn’t hard to believe considering he was cheaply bulldozed twice in the recent contest against the Phoenix Suns by Jared Dudley and Marquese Chriss. In fact, with how blatantly he was targeted, it’s a relief he didn’t suffer anything worse.

Hopefully Rubio will be able to fight through it and be good to go, but if he’s unable to suit up, especially since Raul Neto is also already sidelined, this could turn into a big game for Dante Exum who would likely have to play extended minutes to cover for Ricky’s absence. Exum had some good flashes in his first game back and will have another great opportunity to work his way back in against a lackluster Kings team.

If Rubio, who as I said has been on fire lately and a key cog in Utah’s success, is able to play, I suspect the Jazz will once again win big, earning their ninth straight win and likely their seventh straight by 14 points or more. If he doesn’t play, it makes me a little bit nervous as it will suddenly make Utah very thin in the backcourt, but I’m still pretty confident they’ll have the firepower to topple a likely weary Sacramento squad.

Maybe the recently signed David Stockton, son of Utah Jazz great John Stockton, will even get some run to help shore up Utah’s wounded point guard corp. Whether that ends up being the case or not, expect the Jazz to come up big once again.

My Prediction – Jazz 116, Kings 98

Next: Another Stockton officially set to run point for the Utah Jazz

Utah and Sacramento will tip-off tonight at 7:00 PM MT, then the Jazz will return to action on Tuesday when they’ll host the Atlanta Hawks for the final game of their current home stand before heading out on a tough three-game road swing against the Dallas Mavericks, San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors.