A lot of things went badly for the Utah Jazz tonight. Why?
It was the season opener for the Utah Jazz. A sellout crowd, celebrities, and Jazz legends in the crowd, to kick off the franchise’s 50th NBA season. The newly minted Delta Center was rocking before tipoff.
By the end, it was quiet and the Sacramento Kings strutted out of town with a 130-114 victory over the Jazz.
What went wrong?
A lot of things.
4 minutes into the game the Jazz had 5 points. The Kings had 13.
Defensively, the Jazz gave up far too many 3-point shots – the Kings shot 37.3% from deep (19 of 51).
The Jazz had no answer for Harrison Barnes, who shot a fiery 11-16 from the field and did most of his damage in the first half on the way to a 33-point night. To put that in perspective, Harrison Barnes only scored 30 points one time in the 2022-23 season.
The lack of a point guard hurt the Utah Jazz as they couldn’t get much of a flow on offense at all. Offensive plays seemed to lack flow and often were easily disrupted by the Kings’ defenders.
The Kings paid extra attention to Lauri Markkanen, holding him to 19 points on 6-15 shooting for the night.
Walker Kessler wasn’t really a factor defensively and only played 22 minutes as the Kings sometimes went around and over him.
Will Hardy needed to call timeouts a few times to settle the troops, but refused to do so. He needs to improve at this and realize when things are getting out of hand.
Collin Sexton forced things too much and needs to play under control more often.
All of the things Kris Dunn did right in the preseason seemed to be missing tonight. While he had 8 points and 2 steals, he also had 4 turnovers and was -16 on plus-minus for the game.
Talen Horton-Tucker was okay defensively but struggled to score against the faster Kings guards tonight.
So many things went badly in the opener on the way to 0-1. It is the first game of an 82-game season, and the Utah Jazz aren’t a finished product.
Can they get better? Yes. They had better – the LA Clippers are on deck for Friday night, and they have the advantage of having played us twice already (in the preseason), so they will come in knowing what went right for them in the earlier matchups, and look to exploit those weaknesses again. Let’s hope the Utah Jazz remember what went right against the Clippers and also use that to their advantage, come Friday night.