Times like these really make that Utah Jazz win over the Trail Blazers seem like a distant memory, even though it was only a few nights ago. As it turns out, no-holds-barred beatdowns are more fun to watch when the Jazz are giving them than receiving them.
Alas, the Jazz received one tonight from the Sacramento Kings. The Kings have much bigger aspirations than the Jazz do this season, and they took full advantage of that. The Jazz getting blown out is something many saw coming this season at some points, but losing 141-97, after just putting up the opposite of that, is not a pretty sight.
Funny enough, this was not a wire-to-wire blowout. Winning the game was still attainable for the Jazz around halftime, but once the Kings found their stride, this one got pretty ugly pretty quickly.
Since Utah is one of the worst teams in the league, losses like these are not surprising, but they can be hard to stomach. Yet, a blowout loss like this can have some positive takeaways. It can be annoying to try to look at nights like tonight and see the glass half-full, but here we are.
The Jazz have been pretty good at keeping games competitive this season, even if they almost always lose anyway. By doing that, they have made their games actually pretty fun to watch. They've been tanking with style, so to speak.
Very rarely have they gotten blown out, especially like this. This isn't the first time the Jazz have lost by this much, as the Warriors also blew them out by 40-plus around when the season had just started. However, this was only the second time this happened in a season where many expected losses going in.
Odds are, there will probably a few more like this, but at least they won't set the standard for the season in general. The Jazz can at least take solace in that every so often, they will look as bad as the Wizards, who have lost all of their games in consistently pretty embarrassing fashion.
All the Jazz can do now is just take the L, move on to the next game, and hope that even if they lose, they'll go down fighting instead of being outclassed. The Kings want to make the playoffs, and they made that very clear tonight. They deserve props.
It was just a shame we never got to see old friend Jae Crowder tonight.