Sacramento Kings overcome clunky start to soar past Utah Jazz in first game of road trip
Keegan Murray scored a season-high 26 points to lead the Sacramento Kings to a 118-101 victory over the Utah Jazz on Wednesday at Delta Center in Salt Lake City.
Murray posted his fourth 20-point game of the season and his first since Nov. 24 to help the Kings (30-28) start a four-game road trip with a victory.
Walker Kessler had 25 points and 14 rebounds for the Jazz (14-43), which was missing Lauri Markkanen, John Collins and Collin Sexton due to injuries.
The Kings remained 10th in the Western Conference. They are now just a half-game behind the Dallas Mavericks for No. 9 and three games ahead of the Phoenix Suns for No. 10.
“Games like this, you’ve got to win, so today was a big game for us,” Murray said. “We have a tough schedule coming up. We have to beat some pretty good teams if we want to stay afloat in the Western Conference because there are teams that are playing well behind us. If we want to stay in it, we have to beat good teams and we’re still waiting for that moment when everything just clicks.”
The Kings will be back in action Saturday when they visit the Houston Rockets.
“There are certain aspects of our game that we’re improving in,” interim Kings coach Doug Christie said. “There are certain aspects of our game that we continue to work on, and that’s been my message to them. We are here to work on us. Even toward the end of the game, I’m telling them to get into the ball.
“I know we’re up. The point isn’t that we’re winning. The point is that we need to work on ourselves, not the opponent. Don’t worry about who’s across from us because the next game it will be somebody else. The jersey will change, but we will remain the same and we need to work on ourselves.”
Player stats
Zach LaVine had 22 points and eight rebounds for Sacramento. DeMar DeRozan had 19 points, six rebounds, eight assists and two steals.
Jonas Valanciunas came off the bench to post 15 points and seven rebounds in 14 minutes. Malik Monk had 13 points, nine rebounds and six assists. Domantas Sabonis had 12 points, nine rebounds and six assists while Keon Ellis added 11 points, two steals and three blocked shots.
Team stats
The Kings shot 52.9% from the field and 41.7% from 3-point range. The Jazz shot 45.2% overall and 36.4% from beyond the arc.
The Kings outrebounded the Jazz 47-34 and had a 50-40 advantage on points in the paint.
Halftime report
The Kings did not get off to a great start against an injury depleted opponent that was missing its three leading scorers. They trailed early in the second quarter before staging a couple of nice runs to create some separation.
The Kings were clinging to a 40-36 lead midway through the second period when LaVine scored eight points in a row to put them up by double digits. Sacramento led 55-46 at the halftime break.
The Kings shot 46.7% from the field while holding the Jazz to 41%. They also had a 27-17 rebounding advantage and a 26-16 advantage on points in the paint.
Second half
Utah cut the deficit to one after outscoring Sacramento 13-5 to start the second half, but the Kings responded with an 11-1 run to push the lead back to double digits.
The Kings led 83-69 at the end of the third quarter and went up by as many as 22 in the fourth.
Alley-oops
Christie was not happy when his team threw a number of errant alley-oop passes that resulted in turnovers. Monk wasn’t the only culprit, but he took responsibility after the game.
“Yeah, we were throwing that s--- everywhere,” Monk said. “It started with me, though. I’ve got to stop doing that s--- and I feel like everybody else won’t do it, so I’m going to take care of that.”
Up next
The Kings will make their second stop on this road trip when they face the Rockets on Saturday at Toyota Center in Houston.
The Kings have beaten the Rockets twice in Sacramento this season, winning 120-111 on Dec. 3 and 132-127 on Jan. 16.
This story was originally published February 26, 2025 at 9:19 PM.
