With the Utah Jazz and Sacramento Kings both on the back end of a back-to-back, the Kings came out on top, 113-96.

Sacramento’s top talent, along with their veteran role players, was too much for the Jazz to overcome. Domantas Sabonis was dominant with 28 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists, while DeMar DeRozan scored 20 and De’Aaron Fox scored 19.

Despite big nights from the Kings’ three stars, Utah had some highlights to be happy about this game.

Utah started this off nicely with an early lead. It has been a trend over the last four games where the Jazz have started the game strong, sometimes even with a lead, but when they have changed, they have slowly fallen behind. You can see that they enter the matches with a good game plan, good ball movement and solid defensive play. But as the game progresses, the Jazz’s inexperience and lack of top talent slowly causes them to give up too many points and turnovers.

The biggest story from this is that Lauri Markkanen had to leave early with back spasms.

After the loss of Taylor Hendricks, an injury to Markkanen will be extremely difficult to overcome. However, the Jazz don’t have to worry as the goal this season has been to develop the youth.

And the development is underway. Keyonte George has struggled shooting the ball this season, but he has done a great job moving the ball on offense. Tonight he had a career-high 11 assists, a nice sign for the young guard learning to become a point guard in the NBA. The shooting isn’t there yet and the turnovers are high, but it’s fun to see how he understands the passing game.

Cody Williams scored his first three of the season and it seemed to help calm his nerves. He finished the game 3/6 from 3, which bodes well for the rest of the season. Williams also moved the ball within the offense, keeping the offense fluid. It’s clear that Williams is a smart player who wants to make winning plays, but he has to be selfish at times to develop.

Due to the injuries to Taylor Hendricks and Lauri Markkanen, it meant a lot of time for Kyle Filipowski. “Flip” showed some nice signs with good shooting and toughness driving to the rim. He shot 5/10 from the field and 2/5 from three, scored 12 points and grabbed 8 rebounds. Not bad in his first real NBA minutes.

Finally, it should be noted that Walker Kessler is playing well for the Jazz, much better than his second season. So far this season, Kessler is proving that his rookie season was no fluke. The question is: can he maintain this level?

That said, the Jazz lost pretty badly, which makes this the perfect type of game. You are seeing signs of development in the youth as you improve the draft position. By the way, Utah is currently in first place in the lottery.