Who’s Playing
Utah Jazz @ Sacramento Kings
Current Records: Utah 9-16, Sacramento 14-9
How To Watch
- When: Saturday, December 16, 2023 at 10 p.m. ET
- Where: Golden 1 Center — Sacramento, California
- TV: NBATV
- Follow: CBS Sports App
- Online streaming: fuboTV (Try for free. Regional restrictions may apply.)
- Ticket Cost: $34.00
What to Know
The Kings will be playing the full four quarters on Saturday, but they’re expected to have things wrapped up well before that. They will be home for the holidays to greet the Utah Jazz at 10:00 p.m. ET at Golden 1 Center. Both teams come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
The matchup between the Kings and the Thunder on Thursday hardly resembled the 105-98 effort from their previous meeting. Sacramento managed a 128-123 victory over Oklahoma City. The victory was just what the Kings needed coming off of a 119-99 loss in their prior matchup.
The Kings can attribute much of their success to De’Aaron Fox, who scored 41 points along with seven assists.
The Jazz fell on hard times earlier this season, but after back-to-back wins it seems like their luck might finally be changing. They came out on top against Portland by a score of 122-114 on Thursday. The Jazz pushed the score to 103-76 by the end of the third, a deficit the Trail Blazers cut but never quite recovered from.
The Jazz got their win on the backs of several key players, but it was Simone Fontecchio out in front who scored 24 points along with five rebounds. As a matter of fact, that’s the most points Fontecchio has scored all season. Collin Sexton was another key contributor, scoring 27 points.
Sacramento is on a roll lately: they’ve won three of their last four matches, which provided a nice bump to their 14-9 record this season. As for Utah, their win ended a six-game drought on the road and puts them at 9-16.
Saturday’s game is shaping up to be a scrappy matchup: The Kings haven’t given up the ball easily this season, having only averaged 13.2 turnovers per game. It’s a different story for the Jazz, though, as they’ve been averaging 16.4 turnovers per game. Given the Kings’ sizeable advantage in that area, the Jazz will need to find a way to close that gap.
The Kings strolled past the Jazz in their previous matchup back in October by a score of 130-114. Will the Kings repeat their success, or do the Jazz have a better game plan this time around? We’ll find out soon enough.
Odds
Sacramento is a big 9.5-point favorite against Utah, according to the latest NBA odds.
The oddsmakers had a good feel for the line for this one, as the game opened with the Kings as a 10.5-point favorite.
The over/under is set at 240 points.
See NBA picks for every single game, including this one, from SportsLine’s advanced computer model. Get picks now.
Series History
Utah has won 6 out of their last 10 games against Sacramento.
- Oct 25, 2023 – Sacramento 130 vs. Utah 114
- Mar 25, 2023 – Sacramento 121 vs. Utah 113
- Mar 20, 2023 – Utah 128 vs. Sacramento 120
- Jan 03, 2023 – Sacramento 117 vs. Utah 115
- Dec 30, 2022 – Sacramento 126 vs. Utah 125
- Mar 12, 2022 – Utah 134 vs. Sacramento 125
- Nov 20, 2021 – Utah 123 vs. Sacramento 105
- Nov 02, 2021 – Utah 119 vs. Sacramento 113
- Oct 22, 2021 – Utah 110 vs. Sacramento 101
- May 16, 2021 – Utah 121 vs. Sacramento 99
