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SACRAMENTO -- The NBA All-Star weekend couldn’t have gone better for the Utah Jazz.
While no Jazz players participated in the main event, the franchise was represented well by some of its younger players.
The high-flying Jeremy Evans dunked two balls at once while jumping over teammate Gordon Hayward to win the slam dunk contest.
Hayward and Derrick Favors scored 15 points apiece in Team Chuck’s victory over Team Shaq in the Rising Stars Challenge.
And the other guys — they got to go on vacation.
Related:
Jazz at a crossroads?
Jeremy Evans scrumptious Slam Dunk performance has momentarily created a few extra minutes of game time for him and pushed the Jazz three- game pre-All Star Break losing streak to the back of jazz fans' consciousness but reality is rolling their way right quick.And now a rested and mostly healthy Jazz team (15-17) begins the second half of its season tonight against Jimmer Fredette and the Sacramento Kings in Sacramento. Raja Bell (left adductor strain) will miss Tuesday's game against the Kings.
The Kings (11-22), fresh off their tentative deal with the NBA for a new area, are looking to ride a home-heavy second- half schedule into playoff contention. The Kings are, once again, at the bottom of the Pacific Division and are struggling to find an offensive identity.
Marcus Thornton leads the Kings in scoring at 18 points per game, but his numbers are down from last season’s average of 21 points per game. Kings coach Keith Smart has turned to rookie point guard Isaiah Thomas to jumpstart the Kings’ offense, but Sacramento is struggling and is assisting an NBA-worst 17.3 times per game.
The Kings are 1-3 with Thomas starting at point guard.
Smart told The Sacramento Bee that Thomas is a vocal leader.
"This is his natural personality being applied to the basketball floor,” he said of the rookie out of Washington.
The Kings aren’t good defensively either, allowing a league-worst 102 points per game
And then there is Jimmer.
The former BYU standout and 10th pick in the 2011 draft has gone from Cougar royalty to NBA irrelevance. Fredette is buried on the Kings' bench, and has seen a decline in minutes played due to the surprising emergence of Thomas, as well as being on a team with a guard-heavy roster. Fredette averages 8 points and 1.92 assists per game while shooting 37 percent from the field.
Related:
TJ Fredette lashes out about Jimmer's lack of playing time
Jimmer Fredette's older brother, TJ, wasn't very happy with Jimmer not logging any minutes against the Heat, and sounded off by tweeting his frustrations late Tuesday evening.While the Kings have struggled this season, they do have a winning record at home. Sacramento is 7-5 this season at Power Balance Pavilion and has wins over Oklahoma City, Portland and the L.A. Lakers.
The Jazz enter tonight’s game as losers of three straight and eight of their last 10. The Jazz are 3-11 on the road this season — their only wins coming against Golden State, Denver and Memphis.
Tonight's game takes place at 8 p.m. and can be seen on Root Sports.
Jarrod is a freelance writer who writes Jazz previews for KSL.com. You can follow Jarrod Hiatt on Twitter at @jarrodhiatt.
