The Utah Jazz will play their first road game tonight against the Sacramento Kings. Both teams come into this one 1-0. The Jazz cruised to an easy win against the lowly Oklahoma City Thunder while the Kings eked out a close win against the Blazers team in which Damian Lillard went 0-9 from three.

The Kings are better than the Thunder and the Jazz will need to play reasonably well to get this win. Donovan Mitchell was hounded by Lu Dort all game against the Thunder and had a poor shooting night overall. The Thunder don’t have a defender of that level in their starting unit and so Mitchell should have an easier time finding his way to the rim. The Kings do have Davion Mitchell though, who played 26 minutes in the Kings’ first game, and he will likely be on Mitchell once he checks in. Depending on how well he does against Mitchell, we’ll probably see good nights from Bojan Bogdanovic and Mike Conley on the perimeter again.

Besides an improved defensive effort from Donovan Mitchell, and everyone on the perimeter in general, Mitchell’s effort to defer to other players on the team to get better shots was a welcome sign. Instead of going at Dort, Mitchell deferred to Mike Conley and Jordan Clarkson multiple times and both players had nice nights. Clarkson was able to score and Conley set up Rudy Gobert who had a great night. The Jazz ecosystem was more healthy than Yellowstone after getting the wolves brought in again.

The Jazz may also be ahead late in this one. That’s gives them a chance to play their young players again. Trent Forrest was just cleared to play from his recent concussion and it will be interesting to see who Quin Snyder plays between him and Jared Butler.

Against the Thunder, Butler got meaningful minutes that meant Conley could get rest. Do those minutes go to Butler tonight or to Forrest?

The other interesting note for tonight’s game will be Holly Rowe getting the nod to be the color commentary for this game.

It was no surprise, but Rowe was fantastic in her first regular season game covering the Jazz during pregame and on the sideline. She’s been a fantastic addition and it will be fun to listen to her color commentary.

Game Info

When: 8:00 PM MT - Oct 22, 2021

Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA

TV: NBA League Pass, ATTSN-RM, NBCSCA