Jazz take down Kings to avoid winless showing in NBA Cup

Keyonte George scored 31 points, Lauri Markkanen added 28 points, and the Utah Jazz avoided a winless round of pool play in the NBA Cup with their 128-119 defeat of the visiting Sacramento Kings on Friday in Salt Lake City.

Utah (1-3), which came into Friday’s contest on a four-game skid, used a 12-2 run early in the second quarter to take a lead it never relinquished.

The Jazz built a lead of as many as 17 points late in the third quarter, but Sacramento (0-4) whittled away at the deficit in the fourth quarter. The Kings shot a blistering 18-of-29 from the floor in the final period to cut the Utah lead to single digits, riding the hot shooting of Zach LaVine.

LaVine hit three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, part of a 6-of-9 period on his way to a game-high 34 points. Friday marked LaVine’s sixth 30-plus-point game of the season and first since Nov. 1.

The initial hole was too deep for Sacramento to climb out of, however, as Utah kept the Kings at an arm’s length of 8-to-11 points for the closing minutes. The Jazz sank eight straight free throws in the final 35.3 seconds to close out a 31-of-40 night shooting from the charity stripe.

Sacramento finished 23-of-32 at the foul line.

Utah also edged the Kings from long distance, shooting 13-of-40 despite Markkanen’s 2-of-13 struggles. George set the pace at 4-of-9, while Brice Sensabaugh knocked down 2-of-5 as part of his 20-point effort off the bench.

Sacramento went 10-of-29 from outside, led by LaVine’s 4-of-9. Keegan Murray scored 23 points to complement LaVine, but went just 1-of-6 from 3-point distance.

Maxime Raynaud came off the bench to score 19 points for the Kings, while Russell Westbrook and DeMar DeRozan each added 16 points.

The loss was Sacramento’s second straight — both contributing to a winless showing in pool play of the NBA Cup — and dropped the Kings to 2-10 over their last 12.