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Sacramento Kings

Kings vs. Jazz Preview – By the Numbers

By espn1320 Jan 03, 2023

The Kings look to rebound after their tough game against the Grizzlies. They get a second look in three games the Utah Jazz, this time as visitors. The Jazz are in the midst of a 4-game losing streak, one of which was the 1 Point loss to the Kings in Sacramento. Let’s take a look at how the Kings can replicate the result.

I think I can still hear residual sound from when Kevin Huerter made the 3-point shot to put the Kings ahead last Friday. After scoring a career high 30 Points against Utah, Huerter followed it up with a very solid 14 Point, 6 Rebound, and 5 Assist game in which he went 3-of-7 (42.9%) from 3 against Memphis. In a game in which no one was able to get going on offense, Huerter quietly had a solid game.

Over his last 8 games, Kevin Huerter is averaging 16.6 Points, 3.3 Rebounds, 1.9 Assists, and 1.3 Steals on 52.7/46.3/80.0% shooting splits. We saw in the beginning of the year how Huerter getting going can almost carry a whole offense. If he can continue his play, the Kings offense should skyrocket back to the top of the rankings like earlier in the year. The Kings have slid down to 7th in Offensive Ranking after previously being in the top of the rankings.

Over the first 17 games of the season, Huerter shot a scorching 49.6% from 3 on 7.4 attempts per game. He was truly on a historic pace

The Kings went 10-7 over the 17-game span, and on 11/23/2022, had the 2nd ranked offense in the NBA. I don’t think it was a coincidence that Huerter going ballistic from deep coincided with a great stretch against good teams. Then Huerter, understandably so as defenses put more focus on him, went through a slump. Over his next 9 games, Huerter shot 22.4% from beyond the arc on 6.4 attempts per game. The Kings went 4-5 and had the 21st ranked offense over the time.

Jump back ahead to the last 8 games that we’ve seen a resurgence from Huerter, and the Kings have climbed back to the 10th ranked offense. Not quite as impressive as the 2nd rank, but much improved. Huerter is going to continue to get a ton of attention from defenses over the season, and it will be crucial for the Kings to continue to find ways to get him good looks. From the sounds and looks of it, it seems like they made adjustments and Huerter is getting great looks off of the action. Over the 8 games, Kevin is getting 3.5 Open 3PA’s per game, and 1.5 Wide-Open looks. It’s not a mind-blowing number, but it is a high number for someone who garners so much attention as he does.

For the Jazz, it will be similar to last game where the Kings will have to take care of Utah being poor in transition defense and Points in the Paint. Last game the Kings scored 13 Fastbreak Points and 68 Points inside. Utah still gives up the 2nd most and most of each, respectfully. The Kings also did a great job of limiting Utah from deep last game, holding them to 8-of-32 (25.0%) from 3. That’s extremely important against the team that takes 39.8 3’s per game, 4th most in the NBA.

This should be a good test to take on another team in such few numbers of games, creating the playoff like atmosphere. Mike Brown has been great making adjustments this season, which should play into the Kings favor. It will be fun to see how they rebound after what seems like a down game against Memphis.

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