What a wasted opportunity.

A night after losing a winnable game against the Golden State Warriors, the Sacramento Kings were granted a gift. The Utah Jazz, who the Kings beat days earlier at full strength, would be without Donovan Mitchell. Even on a back to back, the Kings 5th(!) of the season, it should have been a winnable game. But the Kings showed up without a spark and let the Jazz have their way.

De’Aaron Fox had a rough night, again. Fox finished with 13 points on 5-11 shooting, and added just 3 assists and 2 rebounds. Normally Fox can have a positive impact even when his shot isn’t falling, but that wasn’t the case tonight. He also struggled to contain Ricky Rubio, who torched the Kings for 27 points.

Willie Cauley-Stein was terrible. He tends to struggle on back to backs, but this was especially bad. 6 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block. Woof.

There were some bright spots. Bogdan Bogdanovic got the start at small forward as Iman Shumpert sat out with “load management”. Bogi stepped up and finished with 20 points.

Marvin Bagley III and Harry Giles were bright spots as well. Bagley had 18 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 blocks. Harry had 10 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals, and 2 blocks. It was really great to see.

I continue to be baffled by Dave Joerger’s decision to play Justin Jackson significant minutes. In 20 minutes JJ scores 3 points and had 3 rebounds. By contrast, Troy Williams scored 8 points in under 5 minutes.