De’Aaron Fox Scores 37 Points, Kifts Kings Beats Jazz 117-115
When the year 2023 rolled around, it was a surprise that both the Sacramento Kings and the Utah Jazz were still in the Western Conference playoff hunt. On Tuesday night, the Sacramento Kings will travel to Salt Lake City to play the Utah Jazz.
On Friday, Kevin Huerter hit a 3-pointer with 9.2 seconds left to give the Kings a 126-125 home win over the Jazz. This made the Kings’ standings better.
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The Kings haven’t been in the playoffs since 2006, but their new coach, Mike Brown, said after the game that home fans got a taste of what April could be like if the team keeps going at this rate.
“Some of these regular-season games have so much energy that they could be mistaken for playoff games,” he said.
The meeting was the first of four this season, with two at each site. The last two will be in late March, just before the playoffs start to become clear.
Domantas Sabonis of the Kings and Lauri Markkanen of the Jazz, two of the best big men in the league, will go up against each other in this matchup.
Sabonis played with a broken right thumb, but he still made 12 of 12 shots and scored 28 points in the win over Utah. After that, he scored 18 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in a loss to Memphis (118-108), which was his 13th straight double-double.
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In December, he had 12 double-doubles in 13 games, which tied him with Nikola Jokic for the most in the NBA.
Sabonis is one of the best big men in the league, but Markkanen has done most of his damage from the outside.
Against the Kings, he scored 36 points by making 16 of his 24 shots. One of his 16 baskets was a 3-pointer, making it the 27th straight game in which he has made at least one. This streak reached 27 games when he made three more 3-pointers in Saturday’s 126-123 home loss to the Miami Heat.
Even though he missed three games, the 7-footer made 49 threes in December, which tied for eighth most in the NBA.
“He’s terrible to play against,” said teammate Kelly Olynyk. “He’s making unbelievable shots.”
The first meeting was not a fight to the death. Utah Jazz
Huerter scored the game-winning basket and led his team with 30 points. De’Aaron Fox added 24 points and 10 assists to give the Kings a third player with 20 or more points and a second player with a double-double.
Markkanen was helped by Jordan Clarkson, who scored 25 points for Utah. Utah lost the game because it only made 8 of 32 3-point shots, while the home team made 12 of 30.
The Kings are the better team right now, as they have won two of their last three games. Since Utah has lost four games in a row, Sacramento has moved ahead of them in the Western division by two games.
After the meeting, each club will go in a different direction. On Thursday, Utah will go to Houston to start a three-game road trip. On the same day, Sacramento will fly west to start a five-game homestand against the Atlanta Hawks.
