Utah Jazz vs. Sacramento Kings: Will home court help Jazz break out of funk?

The Utah Jazz have fallen below .500 once again, and unlike in years past, their next foe, the Sacramento Kings, is no slouch.

Coming into this season, Utah Jazz fans likely would have viewed a home contest against the Sacramento Kings as an easy victory. After all, the Kings were pegged by many to be a struggling young squad that would find it difficult to earn 30 wins in the Western Conference. Meanwhile, the Jazz, who many projected would be a a top-four team in the West, should be able to easily dispatch such lackluster competition.

Unfortunately, based on what we’ve seen thus far, Jazz fans probably shouldn’t feel too comfortable about the upcoming bout.

Sure, we’re only 17 games in and a lot could very well change. The Jazz might still become a top-four seed and the Kings may still end up under the 30-win mark. But when considering current trends, Wednesday evening’s bout certainly is far from a guarantee for Utah.

And that honestly has just as much to do with Sacramento’s surprising early success as it has to do with Utah’s struggles up to this point. Sure, the Jazz have been less than impressive, but normally you’d still expect them to beat the Kings. So far this season, though, this Kings team has been anything but easy to overlook. They’re currently sitting at a record of 9-8, and while that’s only good for 10th in the deep West, the fact that they’re above .500 is impressive in and of itself.

After all, that’s more than the Jazz can say at this early juncture as they presently reside at 12th with an 8-9 record.

The Kings have been able to put up impressive wins this season thanks largely to the stellar play of De’Aaron Fox, who looks very likely on his way to becoming a strong Most Improved Player candidate. He’s averaging 18.2 points per game on solid shooting splits of 49.1 percent from the field and 40 percent from deep. Watching he and his friend Donovan Mitchell go at one another will be an absolute joy to watch, though admittedly, Fox is off to a much more consistent start than Donovan so far this season.

Aside from Fox, Buddy Hield is having the best season of his young career and finally beginning to appear as if he’s rounding into exceptional form. He’s been Sacramento’s leading scorer at 19.2 points per game and is shooting fantastically as well. He’s up to 48.4 percent from the field and a whopping 44.3 percent from the perimeter.

Considering how putrid Utah’s defense has been of late, most recently in a dismal 121-94 loss to the Victor Oladipo-less Indiana Pacers, they’ll have their work cut out for themselves aiming to contain that prolific duo. Young stud Bogdan Bogdanovic can also catch fire for the Kings, Willie Cauley-Stein is no slouch in the post and gave Rudy Gobert trouble last game, Nemanja Bjelica is shooting nearly 50 percent from deep and rookie Marvin Bagley is impressive as well.

Although the Kings have been a prolific shooting team, putting up the fifth best 3-point percentage in the league and seventh best field goal percentage in the league, their largest area of weakness may be their defense. They come in at just 18th in the NBA in defensive rating at 108.9.

The Jazz have unfortunately been one of the league’s weaker shooting teams, but hopefully their offense will be able to get it together against what’s been a lackluster defense. Despite the fact that they’ve been travelling a lot and this single game back home is akin to just another stop along the way, one would expect Utah to have a lot more energy and focus at home, so ideally that will be beneficial as well.

In all honesty, while the Kings can’t be overlooked and certainly look more primed to defeat the Jazz than in years past and than one would have expected coming into the season, I’m feeling quite confident that Utah will figure it out enough to get the W within Vivint Smart Home Arena on Wednesday.

They’ll certainly have to play much better than they have in recent bouts in Indiana and Dallas, but this sleeping beast of a Jazz team has to wake up eventually. Why not on Wednesday in their first home contest in six games? I’m predicting a nice bounce-back win in this contest.

My Prediction: Jazz 120, Kings 106

A win would put Utah back at .500 anew, ideally to stay for the rest of the season. But with yet another road trip ahead, even that’s far from a guarantee. Even so, earning a very much attainable victory over Sacramento will be key to Utah’s confidence and record moving forward.

The Jazz and Kings tip-off at 7:00 PM MT on Wednesday.