After a five-game road trip, was it home sweet home for the Utah Jazz? Not so much against an upstart Sacramento Kings squad.
Given the fact that the Utah Jazz have played as many (or more) road games as any team in the NBA, you can almost explain away the fact that the team is still under .500 nearly 20 games into the 2018-19 season.
On Wednesday, though, the Jazz showed that they’ve got more than just an unfavorable schedule to contend with.
Playing in their first home contest following a difficult five-game roadie, the Jazz hosted a Sacramento Kings squad that, despite having a strong opening month, seemingly provided a solid opportunity for Donovan Mitchell and company to pick up a win. Instead, a familiar recipe led to an increasingly common result — the Kings beat the Jazz 119-110.
With the loss, the Jazz dropped to 8-10 on the year and just 2-5 within the “friendly” confines of Vivint Smart Home Arena.
As was the case throughout the recent road trip, the team struggled to defend consistently. On the night, Sacramento scored on nearly 53 percent of their field goal attempts overall and 44 percent from distance. In addition to their perimeter success, the Kings worked the Jazz down low, finishing plus-16 in paint points.
Willie Cauley-Stein led the way there, scoring a team-high 23 points on 11-of-15 shooting
All told, seven Kings players finished in double figures, while De’Aaron Fox also added 13 assists.
Meanwhile, Utah also continued to struggle from deep; for the night, they were 12-for-39 for just under 31 percent. That’s a below-average number, and it was actually buoyed by late triples from Mitchell, who hit two during a comeback bid, as well as Ricky Rubio.
Those buckets brought the Jazz to within two scores at 110-106, but the Jazz band simply ran out of gas at that point. Once again, a slow start, wavering D and tough sledding from long range proved too much to overcome.
On the bright side, Mitchell scored 35 points on 23 shots and banged down four 3-pointers. Also: Rudy Gobert put up a 13-5-2 line. Beyond that, there wasn’t much to write home about.
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The schedule is absolutely hurting the Jazz right now, and the Kings–who are quickly establishing themselves as a team on the rise — are a part of that. However, the Jazz need to do their part to mitigate its effect. Right now, they’re simply not doing so.
Said Mitchell, after the game — “We know what we’re capable of, and we’re not playing that way at all.”
He’s not wrong, but Jazz players have been making similar statements throughout the year and little has changed. The time to act on those words is now. The team’s next chance to do so comes on Friday against the LA Lakers. Tip-off will be at 8:30 PM MT.