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SACRAMENTO — Lighting didn't strike twice — at least not for the Utah Jazz.
The Sacramento Kings and the Jazz both came into Sunday's game off blowout victories. One of them continued that high; it wasn't Utah.
The Jazz followed up a surprise 42-point win in Portland by getting routed 141-97 by the Kings at Golden 1 Center.
Talk about coming back down to earth.
"Yeah, we got our butts kicked," Jazz coach Will Hardy said.
How good of a night was it for Sacremaneto? Consider this: Doug McDermott checked in for the first time with 8:22 left in the game and the Kings up by 35 — and still ended up providing the most electric moments of the night.
McDermott hit his first six 3-pointers for 18 points, giving Sacramento fans a reason to stick around until the end.
His shooting was also a microcosm for the game as a whole. The Kings were limited to 44 points in the paint and only made five free throws, which meant the majority of their points come on jump shots.
The Kings went 22-of-44 from the 3-point line, and De'Aaron Fox and DeMar DeRozan both were lethal in the midrange game. So it didn't really matter that the Jazz mostly limited the Kings around the rim, because they just shot over Utah's defense.
Meanwhile, the Jazz shot just 39% from the field, which allowed the score to get pretty wonky.
"That's the way the NBA can feel now — games can feel crazy when teams get hot shooting the ball from kind of everywhere," Hardy said.
That was the case on Sunday. Once the Kings got hot — which came in the second quarter — it was game over. After a tight first 12 minutes, things quickly got out of hand in the second quarter. The Kings scored 36 points in the second quarter and 43 more in the third to balloon the lead.
"I felt like as the game went on, we were just were kind of off their body," Hardy said. "They also made us pay in transition, almost every mistake was either a layup or a 3."
So was there a letdown from Utah's own 42-point win two days earlier? Hardy didn't see much of that. Sure, he would have liked to see some more physicality against their shooters, less turnovers and more recognition of opposing personnel, but he was hesitant to chalk those issues up to a hangover from Friday's win.
If anything, he thinks it shows that 40-point wins — including Sunday's — are mostly just outliers in the NBA.
"It's not necessarily indicative of how well you are playing," he said. "It's a night everything goes well. Yes, you played very well, but that doesn't mean you are playing at that level."
A repeat of Friday's game shouldn't have been expected. The good news for the Jazz is the same can be said for Sunday's.
One of the lone bright spots for the Jazz was Keyonte George, who had 25 points on 8-of-14 shooting and seven assists. John Collins added 19 points and Collin Sexton had 15 points.
Lauri Markkanen, who missed the win in Portland, returned to score just 8 points on 2-of-9 shooting in 25 minutes.
Rookie Kyle Filipowski returned after missing the last seven games with a leg injury and had 3 points in 10 minutes.
"We are in this space of guys being in and out, and it's tough for young players to find continuity," he said. "I think for any team to find a level and sustain we do need to have continuity."
