Utah Jazz vs Sacramento Kings recap and final score

On October 30, 2024By Littum

With the Utah Jazz and Sacramento Kings both on the tail end of a back-to-back, the Kings came out on top, 113-96.

Sacramento’s top line talent, along with their veteran role players, was too much for the Jazz to overcome. Domantas Sabonis was dominant with 28 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists, while DeMar DeRozan scored 20 and De’Aaron Fox scored 19.

Despite big nights from the Kings’ three stars, Utah had some highlights to be happy about this game.

Utah got off to a great start in this one with an early lead. It’s been a trend in the last four games where the Jazz start the game strong, sometimes even leading, but when they make their substitutions, they slowly fall behind. You can see that they come into the games with a good game plan, good ball movement and solid defensive play. But as the game goes on, the inexperience and lack of top line talent slowly lead to the Jazz giving up too many points and turnovers.

The biggest story from this one is that Lauri Markkanen had to go early with back spasms.

Will Hardy said Lauri Markkanen’s back locked onto him. At the end of the break, he was on the training table, barely able to move. The jazz signifies the damage from day to day. They will see how he is tomorrow when he wakes up

— Tony Jones (@Tjonesonthenba) 30 October 2024

After losing Taylor Hendricks, an injury to Markkanen will be extremely difficult to overcome. The Jazz may not be worried as the goal for this season has been to develop the youth.

And development is happening. Keyonte George has struggled to shoot the ball this season, but he has done a solid job moving the ball on offense. Tonight he had a career-high 11 assists, a good sign for the young guard who is learning to be a point guard in the NBA. The shooting isn’t there yet and the turnovers are high, but it’s nice to see him figure out the pass.

Cody Williams hit his first three of the season and that seemed to help settle his nerves. He finished the game shooting 3/6 from three, which bodes well for the rest of the season. Williams also moved the ball within the offense and kept the offense flowing. It’s clear that Williams is a smart player who wants to play winning games, he just needs to be selfish at times to develop.

Due to the injuries to Taylor Hendricks and Lauri Markkanen, it opened up a lot of time for Kyle Filipowski. “Flip” showed some great signs with good shooting and toughness driving to the rim. He shot 5/10 from the field and 2/5 from three to score 12 points and grab 8 rebounds. Not bad for his first real NBA minutes.

Finally, it should be noted that Walker Kessler is playing well for the Jazz, much better than his sophomore season. So far this season, Kessler has proven that his rookie season was no fluke. The question is, can he last at this level?

With all that said, the Jazz lost pretty badly, which makes this the perfect type of game. You see signs of development from the youth as you improve the position. By the way, Utah is now number 1 in the lottery as we speak.