Jazz rout Kings 154-105, snap two-game losing streak

Updated Apr. 29, 2021 1:07 a.m. ET

Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Like many of his Utah teammates, Matt Thomas felt like he couldn’t miss — and he was right. Seven shots, all makes, on the way to 17 points in a mere nine minutes.

“Its awesome,” Thomas said. “As a shooter and as a scorer it always feels good when the ball is going in the basket. Tonight was one of those nights where the basket looked pretty big to me.”

So much for the idea that the Jazz are easing up in their march to the playoffs.

Bojan Bogdanovic scored 24 points, Utah made 24 3-pointers, and the short-handed Jazz bounced back from consecutive losses and set a franchise scoring record in a 154-105 win over the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night.

Rudy Gobert had 12 points and 10 rebounds, Jordan Clarkson scored 23 points and Georges Niang scored 19 with five 3s for Utah.

“I’m probably in the minority, but I thought we played well (Monday) night and didn’t shoot well,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. “Tonight we played well in a different way. The ball moved. We were solid tonight. Obviously we made shots.”

Utah shot 64% overall and went 24 of 41 on 3s, two nights after missing 41 in the second of back-to-back losses to Minnesota.

The West-leading Jazz jumped on the Kings and never let up. Utah outscored Sacramento 46-17 in the second quarter, built its lead to 54 points and rolled to its most lopsided win of the year.

Utah’s previous record for points in a game was 153, set in 1977-78 when the franchise was in New Orleans.

“All of us were a little bitter after losing two straight to Minnesota, so we really wanted to come out here and make a point,” Niang said.

Buddy Hield had 18 points and seven assists for Sacramento. The Kings’ fading postseason hopes took another blow with their 12th loss in 15 games.

“It got bad quickly there after the first quarter,” Kings coach Luke Walton said. “That is an elite championship-contending team coming off a couple tough losses and they took it out on us. At times, it felt like grown men having their way out on the court.”

Both teams played with banged-up backcourts.

Utah was without injured All-Star guards Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley. Mitchell is nursing a sprained right ankle, while Conley aggravated a hamstring injury that sidelined him for 11 games earlier this season. Sacramento point guard De’Aaron Fox is in the NBA’s health and safety protocol.

Snyder’s team still easily rolled past the Kings and improved to an NBA-best 45-17.

Utah led by 32 at halftime and continued to pull away in the third with its starters on the bench. Derrick Favors scored all eight of his points in the period, and Ersan Ilyasova made a 3-pointer at the buzzer to make it 116-74.

Thomas made a pair of buckets sandwiched around an Ilsyasova 3-pointer to push the Jazz lead to 135-83.

TIP-INS

Jazz: Favors had 11 rebounds in 13 minutes off the bench.

Kings: Fox has missed the last three games. …. Harrison Barnes (left adductor) did not play.

UP NEXT

Jazz: Face the Suns on Friday in a matchup of the top teams in the West. Phoenix has won two straight against Utah.

Kings: Open a four-game trip in Los Angeles against the Lakers on Friday night. The teams split a pair of games at Golden 1 Center earlier this season.

___

More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/tag/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports