Game thread: Utah Jazz look to start new streak with Kings in town

The Utah Jazz win streak is snapped, but they’ll look to reignite a new one with Mike Conley back in the lineup and the Sacramento Kings in town.

The Utah Jazz were riding high on a 10-game win streak that had put them in second place in the West when it all came crashing down in heartbreak fashion on Thursday night in New Orleans. Between some poor execution down the stretch and some questionable calls affecting both teams, ultimately the Jazz were thwarted in overtime in a game that featured an impressive shootout between Brandon Ingram and Donovan Mitchell.

Due to how closely stacked the West is, the defeat dropped Utah back to fourth in the West. Honestly, the loss was somewhat disappointing considering they’ll need every victory they can get ahead of January 25th when a 10-game stretch of contests against daunting opponents looms. However, the Jazz can’t afford to hang their heads too much. Instead, they just need to get right back at it and aim to initiate an all-new win streak.

That opportunity will begin on Saturday night as they host the Sacramento Kings and they’ll be doing so after receiving some very good news. Namely, Mike Conley is probable for the contest so barring an extreme setback he’ll finally make his return to action in the bout. Conley has missed the last 14 games, so it will be intriguing and exciting to see how the Jazz work him back in.

Up to this point, he’s struggled somewhat to assimilate with his new team but hopefully the time spent studying them from the sidelines and an improved bench led by Jordan Clarkson will allow Mike to take things up a notch this time around.

Utah’s opponent should give Conley a good return game to get back up to speed as the Kings have been less than impressive so far this year. In their defense, they’ve suffered a myriad of injuries. Nevertheless, a 15-26 record and the second-to-last spot in the West is certainly disappointing for a squad that competed for a playoff spot last year and had heightened expectations in 2019-20.

Even so, Sacramento is a team that the Jazz can’t overlook. They strive to play at a breakneck pace and can certainly hurt their opponents when they get going downhill in transition. Despite their less than formidable performance thus far, they are still a team that can be dangerous with a talented group of guys.

Utah should have the edge in this one on their home court against an inferior team with their starting point guard back in action, but as Thursday’s loss proved, any NBA team can catch a foe off guard on any given night.

Game Data

Broadcast Info

Tip-off: 7:00 PM MT on January 18, 2020 from Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City
TV: AT&T SportsNet
Radio: The Zone Sports Network (97.5 FM & 1280 AM Salt Lake City)

Projected Starting Lineups

Injuries

For the first time in what feels like forever, the Utah Jazz are clean on the injury front. Even though Royce O’Neale was starting previously, due to the success Joe Ingles has had in the starting lineup, it’s likely that he’ll remain there with Mike Conley back in the starting backcourt.

Editor’s Note: After this initial writing it was reported that Conley would be coming off the bench on a minute’s restriction.

On The Kings’ side, they actually have good news on the injury front as Bogdan Bogdanovic and Nemanja Bjelica are both expected to play. Meanwhile, their standout center Richaun Holmes remains out with a shoulder injury.

Prediction

The Utah Jazz are at home after playing six of eight games on the road and they have Mike Conley back in action so they should be pretty pumped up for this bout. Consider as well that Sacramento is just 8-13 on the road and I like Utah’s chances.

The Action Network has the Jazz as 10-point favorites but I think they’ll out-perform even that mark in a big bounce-back game. I’m going with Jazz 120, Kings 104.

Discussion

#SACatUTA is the Twitter hashtag for the game and our live comment thread below will be up and rolling throughout the game as well. Go Jazz!