Rudy Gobert, Utah Jazz dethrone the Kings in preseason finale

The Utah Jazz wrapped up their exhibition slate with an unblemished record after Rudy Gobert led the team to a dominating win in Sacramento.

Preseason performance has never been the best indicator of what’s to come in the NBA. But if the Utah Jazz can bottle just a little bit of the gusto from their 2018 exhibition slate, the year to come will be one for the annals.

The Jazz wrapped up their preseason on Thursday night in dominating fashion, dethroning the Sacramento Kings at Golden 1 Center with a 132-93 win. Utah pushed the lead to as many as 38 points in the first half, benched all but one of its starters in half No. 2 and still managed to run it up over 40 late in the fourth quarter.

With the win, the Jazz finished 5-0 in preseason play for the second consecutive year.

Rudy Gobert led the way for the boys in blue, scoring 18 points in just 17 minutes of play and hit on seven of his eight shot attempts. He also added seven boards, one block and one steal.

Gobert’s big night perfectly encapsulated the way the Jazz plan to use his verticality to greater effect in 2018-19. The Jazz looked his way time and time again on screen-roll action and lob passes, and while the Kings are hoping Willie Cauley-Stein can become more of a defensive anchor this season, the former No. 6 overall pick had no answer for the Stifle Tower.

Buckets won’t always come with this level of ease, but look for him to continue his rim-running ways nonetheless. Any extra offense the Jazz can get from Gobert is a big-time boon.

Derrick Favors and Jae Crowder also aided in Utah’s frontcourt dominance, combining for 23 points on 8-of-10 shooting and 15 rebounds. The duo continues to afford Jazz coach Quin Snyder the luxury of throwing vastly different looks at opponents in the four spot.

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Alec Burks and Grayson Allen both played well off the bench once again, scoring 17 and 14 points, respectively. With Raul Neto ailing and the Jazz likely to employ more three-guard sets this season, I would expect both players to be part of the rotation to start the year. Their battle for minutes will be something to watch in the early season.

While the team’s offense was clearly firing on all cylinders, it was the defensive improvement that was the most encouraging in the win. To say that the Jazz front was soft in its last outing (against the Portland Trail Blazers) is an understatement. The Kings were obviously a lot less to handle, but holding them to 34 percent from the floor, 17 percent from distance and 93 total points was still impressive.

The Jazz will tip-off the regular season against these same Kings on October 17.