SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Guard Rodney Hood scored nine straight points during a decisive 14-2 run late in the fourth quarter Sunday, and the Utah Jazz continued their second-half surge with a 101-95 victory over the Sacramento Kings at Sleep Train Arena.
Hood scored 25 points to pace the Jazz, the most important of them coming after Kings forward Derrick Williams was called for a technical foul with 6:09 left. Williams confronted Jazz center Rudy Gobert immediately after forward Omri Casspi’s breakaway dunk reduced Utah’s lead to 83-82.
Hood made the technical foul shot, then drilled a 3-pointer on the Jazz’s ensuing possession. He then drained a jumper and, on the next Utah possession, converted a three-point play. A 3-point jumper by forward Joe Ingles capped the Jazz run and gave them their third win in four games against Sacramento this season.
Forward Derrick Favors added 11 points, and forward Jeremy Evans had 10, and Utah won for the fourth time in five games. Gobert contributed 10 points and nine rebounds, and Utah improved to 16-8 since the All-Star game.
Center DeMarcus Cousins, coming off back-to-back triple-doubles, scored 26 points and pulled 12 rebounds for the Kings (26-50), who have lost at least 50 contests in six straight 82-game seasons. Sacramento went 22-44 in the 66-game lockout-shortened 2011-12 season.
Guard Ben McLemore added 20 points, and Casspi had 14 points for the Kings. Sacramento dropped its fifth straight game overall and fell to 8-16 under coach George Karl.
Center Sim Bhullar, the first native of India to be on an NBA roster, did not play for Sacramento. Bhullar has been in uniform for two games but has not left the bench.
Williams finished with nine points, but he failed to connect with McLemore on an alley-oop pass on a break late in the second quarter. Utah scored the ensuing five points, and the two teams went into halftime tied 49-49. The Kings’ last lead was at 55-54 early in the third quarter, and Trevor Booker’s layup gave Utah a 62-60 lead later that quarter that the Jazz never relinquished.
NOTES: Jazz G Trey Burke (sore lower back) sat out his second straight game. Burke leads Utah with 4.4 assists per game. … Kings C DeMarcus Cousins trailed only six players in triple-doubles this season after recording back-to-back triple-doubles against Houston and New Orleans. Cousins’ 46 double-doubles trailed only Chicago F Pau Gasol (50). … Utah F Rudy Gobert is third in the NBA in rebounding since March 1, trailing only Los Angeles Clippers C DeAndre Jordan and Detroit Pistons C Andre Drummond over that time. Gobert was averaging 14.8 rebounds in that period, and the Jazz were 11-7. … Cousins and F Rudy Gay, the Kings’ two leading scorers, have been on the floor together in only five of Sacramento’s past 13 games. The two have combined to average 50 points a game. … Utah held its previous four opponents under 90 points, and had kept teams from reaching that total in 17 of 23 games since the All-Star break. … Utah Fs Gordon Hayward (19.5 point per game) and Derrick Favors (16.4) lead the NBA’s draft class of 2010 in scoring.