After a great win a few nights ago against the Portland Trailblazers, the Utah Jazz (39-13) look to put together another complete game against the Sacramento Kings (22-30).

This season, the Kings have been, well, the Kings. Led by De’Aaron Fox, Sacramento has been a conglomeration of promising, disappointing, exciting, and frustrating. Between young players such as Tyreese Haliburton, Marvin Bagely, Buddy Hield, and Harrison Barnes, the team has a lot of talent. Unfortunately for them, injures to key players such as Bagely and suspect coaching have been inhibitors to their growth.

With that said, if they were in the Eastern Conference, the Kings would be in the midst of a playoff race. Regardless of if that says more about the Kings’ talent or the conference imbalance in the NBA, Sacramento still has the ability to take it to any team on any night. Fox is a certified killer and rookie Tyrese Halliburton has some of the best composure that I’ve ever seen on someone whose only played 46 professional basketball games. Oh, also, did you know that Jabari Parker plays for them now?

Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images

For Utah, this game will be a great opportunity to build off of the success they experienced against the Blazers. Throughout the last 20 or so games, the Jazz have only had a handful of complete outings. Weather it’s a shooting slump, poor rebounding, or multiple guys having off nights (i.e. Bojan Bogdanovic and Jordan Clarkson), the Jazz haven’t been firing on all cylinders. I know, the Jazz still have the best record in the league, but with only about twenty games left in the season, it would be nice to see Utah begin rounding the corner with some of their struggles.

Game Info

When: Saturday, April 10th, 2021 @ 7pm MST

Where: Vivint Arena, Salt Lake City

TV: AT&T SportsNet-Rocky Mountain

Radio: 97.5 FM | 1280 AM The Zone

What to watch for

Donovan Mitchell vs. De’Aaron Fox

Photo by Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty Images

Historically, this has been a matchup that Donovan Mitchell has dominated. Just look at their stats in the 9 games they’ve played each other (in which Utah has gone 7-2):

Donovan Mitchell: 25.8 points, 3 rebounds, 3.7 assists

De’Aaron Fox: 14.6 points, 3 .3 rebounds, 5.2 assists

Obviously, Fox hasn’t played his best against Utah. However, this season, he’s having a career year, averaging 24.6 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 7.1 assists. The game seems to have slowed down for him and he’s learned how to better use his tremendous quickness. The Kings have lost 5 straight so I’m looking at Fox for a great team to help will his team back on track.

As for Donovan, he’s been on an All-NBA level tear recently. He’s not only posting some incredible scoring numbers, but also shooting at a high clip while continuing his solid facilitating. Let’s hope that the two young studs go at it tonight.