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Improving Kings clash with Jazz

Feb 7, 2011 - 3:55 PM (Sports Network) - The Sacramento Kings have been playing much more competitive basketball recently during one of their toughest stretches of the season. Paul Westphal's club hopes to keep it up tonight when its hosts a struggling Utah Jazz team at ARCO Arena.

After stunning the two-time defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers in Staples Center and halting New Orleans' season-best 10-game run, the Kings hung in before losing 95-90 to Eastern Conference-leading Boston and the NBA's top team, San Antonio, on Friday night.

Tony Parker totaled 25 points in that one as the Spurs kept rolling with a 113-100 win over the Kings, beating Sacramento for the 10th straight time.

Tyreke Evans scored 25 for the Kings, who are now 1-1 on a six-game homestand. Beno Udrih had 18 points, one more than Carl Landry.

"I thought they put on a clinic in the first quarter against us," Westphal said. "We tried to play catch up. We did do better as the game went on, but in the first half they shredded us."

After tonight's contest, Sacramento, which is 7-19 at home, will finish its residency with games against Dallas and Oklahoma City.

"We know we have a tough stretch coming up," Kings forward Omri Casspi told team's website. "We talked about it - we had the Lakers, New Orleans, Boston, San Antonio and we have Utah, Dallas and Oklahoma City coming (up)."

The Jazz, meanwhile, have hit the skids and lost for the ninth time in 12 tries on Saturday when Russell Westbrook scored 27 of his 33 points in the second half and dished out 10 assists, leading Oklahoma City to a 121-105 win in Salt Lake City.

Paul Millsap had 34 points, 10 rebounds and six assists for the Jazz, who wasted a 13-point lead in the first quarter, a period in which they shot 73.7 percent. Al Jefferson ended with 21 points, while Deron Williams contributed 14 points and 11 assists. Raja Bell also scored 14 for Utah.

"It looked like we should be down 30 points. We were down seven or eight points and we still couldn't make stops," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "We went through everything that we do on the defensive end of the floor as far as pick and roll stuff to try and play them. We weren't able to handle any of it."

On the injury front for tonight's game Utah's Andrei Kirilenko, who has missed three straight games with a sprained left ankle, remains questionable, while Kings big man Jason Thompson is set to return after being sidelined for two games with a sprained right ankle.

The Jazz have won six of their past eight meetings with the Kings, including a 94-83 win in Salt Lake City back on Nov. 22.